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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
The UK Supercarrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned by the Queen herself on December 7th. It's smaller than US carriers but still quite impressive and the separate islands are an interesting design feature. Also non-nuclear powered; I'd read that it would have been far too expensive to build one powered by nuclear energy in the current climate in Europe concerning that energy source. I didn't realize it's also named for Queen Elizabeth I, not the current Queen Elizabeth II until this article came out.
 The Queen Elizabeth is 919ft long with a flight deck of four acres, space for three football pitches. The 65,000 ton aircraft carrier is the largest and most powerful warship ever built by the UK. It is 184ft from the carrier’s keel to its masthead – 13ft more than Niagara Falls – and it contains 226 miles of pipework. At present, the warship has a crew of around 700, but that will increase to 1,600 when it has a full complement of around 40 F-35B jets and Crowsnest helicopters. It will have an operational range of up to 10,000 nautical miles and will be capable of speeds in excess of 25 knots (29 mph). Facilities include a chapel, a medical centre, five gyms and two weight rooms. Its bakery produces up to 2,000 rolls or baguettes a day.      It's HMS You, Ma'am! The Queen declares Britain's biggest warship ready for duty | ||
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Member |
I didn't know the Royal Navy was adopting the F-35. ETA: What's with the covers on the optics and handguards on the bullpups? Too classified to be shown in photographs? Rain sensitive? | |||
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Step by step walk the thousand mile road |
God Save the Queen! Nice is overrated "It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government." Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018 | |||
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Member |
  Hedley Lamarr: Wait, wait, wait. I'm unarmed. Bart: Alright, we'll settle this like men, with our fists. Hedley Lamarr: Sorry, I just remembered . . . I am armed. | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
Pretty long sea trials. I won't say anything about the two towers or the lack of an angled deck. I'm sure it was designed with a lot of thought. It was just unexpected. Regarding the debt owed to the Royal Navy: well, yeah. Even I know it was their navy that defined the power for the island nation. I am really impressed that at her age, the Queen reviewed the troops and walked down the group. That's really honoring the troops and commitment to her duties. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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| Member |
Good to see the RN back in the power projection business. Next step is to get Big Lizzie some aircraft. They made some very interesting design compromises as it compares to US carriers, which could be problematic and revealing in how various navies handle damage control design. | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven! |
Yes, I believe the same version or one close to the model that the USMC is getting, a short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant. I think all those covers on the weapons are just a parade thing. Brits know how to put on a show, that's for sure! | |||
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delicately calloused |
Way to go Brits! We need stronger good guys in the world. You think if I said 'pretty please', the queen would send me on of those nifty Enfields? You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier | |||
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Fighting the good fight |
Correct. The F-35B. Interestingly, the HMS Queen Elizabeth's F-35B complement will be a mix of British Royal Navy and US Marine Corps aircraft and crews for at least the first couple years of service, until the British have enough aircraft to meet their requirements. (The QE's first operational tour is scheduled for 2021, and the Royal Navy hopes to have sufficient F-35Bs by 2023.) https://www.defensenews.com/na...rship-made-official/ https://ukdefencejournal.org.u...ry-10th-f-35-128-go/ | |||
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Frangas non Flectes |
I was thinking the same thing and was pleased to see read about it. I remember reading about the decommissioning their last carrier a few years ago and it honestly saddened me. This is a good thing, and I am very glad to see the Queen be the one to commission this ship. A few observations as an American follow. The uniforms have changed quite a bit in Elizabeth's lifetime, and not in a way I would have imagined. I almost feel like the uniforms in these two photos could be switched and look more period-correct:  I'm sure that style of naval uniform has a wide history, but this was the first thing that sprang to mind. I wonder how many other modern navies are sporting duds like this?  As an aside, the article's mention of this happening nearby the HMS Victory surprised me, and I read up a bit on its history not having known that it has survived all these years. Extra cool points for the whole thing right there. ______________________________________________ Carthago delenda est | |||
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Member |
Yeah, but that deck has space for three football pitches!!! ____________________ | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
The uniforms in your first (WW2-era) photo are Royal Marines, while the uniforms in the second (modern) photo are Royal Navy sailors. Not much has changed, uniform-wise, between the two eras. The modern Royal Marines still sport similar blue dress uniforms to their WW2-era counterparts.   And the WW2-era Royal Navy sailors wore similar dress to their modern counterparts.    | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm.  |
A ski-jump takeoff ramp?  No catapults? | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
Not needed with V/STOL aircraft like the F-35B. (Similar vertical/short takeoff capabilities as the Harrier.) Cheaper/easier to produce and operate too. | |||
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Well, at least they got the important requirements met. | |||
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Be Careful What You Wish For... |
Rule, Britannia! ____________________________________________________________ Georgeair: "...looking around my house this morning, it's not easily defended for long by two people in the event of real anarchy. The entryways might be slick for the latecomers though...." | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process  |
Are we sure those are sailors in both pictures? Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
They are not. See my previous post on Royal Marines vs. Royal Navy.  | |||
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| Little ray of sunshine  |
I know why the ramps are there, but they do look like something that a 10 year old boy would put on an aircraft carrier. The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. | |||
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Political Cynic |
thats a fine looking ship (from an ex-subject)  [B] Against ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC | |||
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