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  • Former HMS Ocean now PHeM Atlantico and almost ready for her new owners in Brazil. Bearing the pennant A140. She will replace the Sao Paulo, the former french aircraft carrier FS Foch.

    For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

    Comment


    • More about the River Class batch II.




      HMS Forth
      Construction on HMS Forth began in October 2014 and she was accepted into the Royal Navy in February 2018. As we have reported on, soon after commissioning in April serious faults were discovered with here electrical system and sheared bolts were discovered with heads that had been glued back on. The ship has was quickly handed back to the care and maintenance of BAES and she has remained alongside the South West Wall in Portsmouth since. A thorough assessment of her material state and a plan for rectifications took a considerable time. 12,000 separate checks of systems had to be made but repairs are now nearly complete and she is on track to be handed back to the RN in November. Sea trials and then operational training will take place in the new year before she is permanently deployed to the Falklands to relieve HMS Clyde. Fortunately, the delays to HMS Forth have not had a huge impact on the RN as HMS Clyde has simply had her service extended by a few months.

      Commenting on the issues with HMS Forth, Anderson Smith, BAES Commercial Director – Naval Ships, told Shephard Media, “There were a lot of minor defects and we hold our hands up to that… the OPV programme was about the regeneration of shipbuilding capability on the Clyde… In due course we can look back at it the positives, although it doesn’t feel like it at the minute if I’m looking at it from either a customer or a sales perspective, it found we had some shortfalls in some of our processes. We have now fixed them”

      The problems with HMS Forth were a serious embarrassment for BAES, especially in the latter stages of its drive to sell the Type 26 design to Australia and Canada (fortunately ultimately successful). The quality control failures can be explained in part by the recent history of the Govan yard where she was built. HMS Forth was the first whole ship completed since HMS Duncan in 2012. In the intervening period, the yard worked on hull blocks for the QEC aircraft carriers. Although the blocks were complex in themselves, the systems integration, setting to work, testing and ultimate quality control was carried out in Rosyth where the ships were assembled. BAES has worked hard to introduce a greater focus on quality control and adjust to building complete ships again. The failures constructing HMS Forth are not easy to forgive but there is a definite benefit of sorts. Mistakes with an OPV are far easier to remedy than mistakes with Type 26 frigate construction. Lessons learned working on the OPVs will benefit the same workers who are moving straight on to the much more complex frigates.
      HMS Medway
      Construction on HMS Medway was started in June 2015 and she was named at a ceremony in Scotstoun where she has been fitting out since. After the problems emerged with HMS Forth, the ship was also very thoroughly checked. A single glued bolt head was discovered and other minor issues have been addressed. She will very shortly begin sea trials with a mixed Royal Navy and civilian crew off the west coast of Scotland.

      HMS Trent
      HMS Trent was laid down in Sept 2015. In March 2018 she was formally named in a unique ceremony while the ship was still out of the water outside the construction hall in Govan. She was subsequently floated out and towed to Scotstoun where she is currently being fitted out.

      Tamar
      Work began on HMS Tamar in Dec 2016 and she was floated out in early October 2018. With Medway and Trent already at Scotstoun, Tamar is being fitted out in the dock adjacent to the Govan yard. (Main image above) Her naming ceremony will probably take place in March 2019. It is interesting to note that by selecting the name “Tamar” it seems unlikely the RN would then name one of the Type 26 frigates “HMS Plymouth”, as many have called for.

      Spey
      Construction of the final ship, HMS Spey began in Apr 2017. She is structurally complete and currently in the build hall at Govan under wraps undergoing the paint process which involves the application of five separate coats. She is scheduled to follow close behind Tamar with her naming ceremony planned for mid 2019.
      For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

      Comment


      • Bolt heads glued on??!! Shoot that bastard for a start, then throw a few managers in jail for a while...

        Comment


        • Today it's been announced that the 3 Batch 1 Rivers will remain in service for at least another 2 years and will be based out of their namesake cities, wonder had the RN budgeted in the manpower for them? They also announced an increase in Fisheries Patrols to 600 days a year.
          Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has secured the protection of British home waters by announcing he will retain three of the Royal Navy’s patrol ships.

          Comment


          • HMS Severn will be re-activated. Everyone is wondering where the crews will come from given the RN are struggling to crew frigates and destroyers.
            For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

            Comment


            • An interesting (if long) article about what type of F-35's (A or B) should make up the bulk of the UK's force of F-35's. The UK is committed to buying 138, and so far has 48 type B's for Carrier operations. What should the rest be?

              Type A, with longer range, greater payload, and a significantly cheaper price, but requiring a fully-equipped airfield with functioning runway to do so:

              or

              Type B, with increased flexibility to operate not only on carriers, but also (like the Harrier) in more spartan surroundings with the S/VTOL capability, but with shorter range, smaller payload, and a higher charge to (on paper) do less?

              This opinion piece submitted to the UK Defence Journal by Edward Davies looks at the potential benefits of a mixed UK force of F-35A and F-35B jets.
              Last edited by Flamingo; 12 August 2020, 00:15.
              'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
              'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
              Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
              He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
              http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

              Comment


              • Originally posted by Flamingo View Post
                An interesting (if long) article about what type of F-35's (A or B) should make up the bulk of the UK's force of F-35's. The UK is committed to buying 138, and so far has 48 type B's for Carrier operations. What should the rest be?

                Type A, with longer range, greater payload, and a significantly cheaper price, but requiring a fully-equipped airfield with functioning runway to do so:

                or

                Type B, with increased flexibility to operate not only on carriers, but also (like the Harrier) in more spartan surroundings with the S/VTOL capability, but with shorter range, smaller payload, and a higher charge to (on paper) do less?

                https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/a-an...ed-f-35-force/
                The discussion is not knew and the last time it raised its head it set off an almighty media storm about the fight between the RAF and RN.
                https://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/raf...ier-programme/

                There is as always a SDR coming, and in trying to appeal to the great leader in the shadows "The great protector Cummings" this appears again.
                The UK has now two carriers, its pride and joy, and they will be the symbol of the post-Brexit "Global Britian". Each of these takes a carrier wing of 36 F-35B aircraft. Thus if they are to equip both, throw in the OCU and a few for attrition spliting does not make much sense.

                The article points to Italy which has split is order, but there they have ordered 30 F-35B's but the carrier Cavour only carry half that amount. What also has to be remembered is that the next batches will most likely be spread over the next 20 years. If the RN follow their USN cousins and keep the QE2 class in service for 50 years they will need more B models due to attrition and obsolescence. Thus now switching to A models would again mean that the investment in the 2 QE2s is wasted.

                Comment


                • Don't tell me they are already looking for a way to cancel Project Tempest by ordering F35-As.
                  It was the year of fire...the year of destruction...the year we took back what was ours.
                  It was the year of rebirth...the year of great sadness...the year of pain...and the year of joy.
                  It was a new age...It was the end of history.
                  It was the year everything changed.

                  Comment


                  • More trouble afoot for the RN's newest carrier.


                    Remember those photos that went public in October of Flooding in HMS Prince of Wales?
                    For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

                    Comment


                    • I should expect that this latest incidence will be reflected in the sale price when the sale brochure is published .
                      Don't spit in my Bouillabaisse .

                      Comment


                      • The RN has Aircraft Carrier capability again - Splice the Mainbrace



                        UK says its aircraft carrier strike group is ready to deploy. China's already watching

                        By Brad Lendon, CNN

                        Updated 0521 GMT (1321 HKT) January 5, 2021
                        [ATTACH=CONFIG]8876[/ATTACH]
                        HMS Queen Elizabeth departs from the Royal Navy base in Portsmouth, England, on September 21, 2020.

                        (CNN)Britain is officially an aircraft carrier power again.

                        The Royal Navy announced on Monday that the UK's Carrier Strike Group, centered on Britain's largest ever warship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, had achieved initial operating capability.
                        The designation means the 65,000-ton carrier, its air assets including F-35 stealth fighter jets and helicopters, as well as its escorting destroyers, frigates, submarines and supply ships, are ready to deploy within five days of receiving orders to do so.
                        Qualified pilots and ground crews are on notice.
                        "This is a hugely significant milestone for HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy and the whole country. This achievement is a testament to the determination of our service personnel and industry workforce who have delivered this first-rate military capability, a capability held by only a handful of nations," UK Defense Minister Jeremy Quin said in a statement.
                        The commander of carrier strike group, Commodore Steve Moorehouse, touted his unit's readiness in a Twitter post.
                        "In practical terms, my Strike Group is now at Very High Readiness, meaning we are at 5 days' notice to deploy, if required, in response to global events & in defence of British interests," Moorehouse tweeted.
                        In a followup tweet, he hinted at what is to come. Carrier strike group staff are planning for the Queen Elizabeth's first operational deployment, which Moorhouse said would encompass the Royal Navy's largest peacetime task group in 25 years and be proof of Britain's commitment to maintaining worldwide security -- "a visible demonstration of Global Britain," Moorhouse called it.
                        Specific dates for the first deployment have yet to be announced.

                        UK as a global power
                        Since 2017, UK defense officials have been saying the carrier's first deployment would include Asia and the Pacific on a route from Britain that would likely take it through the South China Sea.
                        "The UK is a global power with truly global interest ... we must be prepared to compete for our interests and our values far, far from home," then-UK Defense Minister Gavin Williamson said in 2019.
                        Britons flock to see largest aircraft carrier (2017)

                        The carrier would take its contingent of state-of-the-art F-35 stealth fighter jets into a region where "China is developing its modern military capability and its commercial power," Williamson said in an address to the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.
                        But the presence of any foreign warships in the South China Sea is frowned upon by China. Beijing claims almost all of the 3.3 million square kilometer (1.3 million square mile) South China Sea as its territory.
                        Even ahead of Monday's Royal Navy readiness announcement, Chinese military officials were warning London against interfering in the region.
                        "We believe the South China Sea should not become a battleground for big power competition, or a sea full of roaming warships," Senior Col. Tan Kefei, a spokesman for China's Defense Ministry, said at a December 31 news briefing reported by the state-run Xinhua media agency in a posting on the Chinese military's official English website.
                        Foreign powers sending their warships to the South China Sea, where China has built military bases on man-made islands, were behind the "militarizaiton" of the waterway, Tan said.
                        "The Chinese military will take necessary measures to protect national sovereignty, security, and its developmental interests, as well as safeguard peace and stability in the region," he said.
                        NATO and the Chinese threat
                        Tan's comments followed a report published late last year from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Britain is a major player, calling the rise of the Chinese military a threat to the alliance.
                        "China has an increasingly global strategic agenda, supported by its economic and military heft. It has proven its willingness to use force against its neighbors, as well as economic coercion and intimidatory diplomacy well beyond the Indo-Pacific region," the NATO report said.
                        "China is increasingly likely to project military power globally, including potentially in the Euro-Atlantic area."
                        Yet a British presence in the South China Sea is not without precedent. In 2018, the Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Albion steamed closed to the Chinese-claimed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea in what Beijing called a "provocative action."
                        And in 2019, UK and US warships conducted six days of coordinated drills in the South China Sea.
                        The UK-US cooperation is expected to continue with the carrier's upcoming deployment to the Asia-Pacific.
                        When the Queen Elizabeth held large-scale exercises in the Atlantic last fall, US Marine Corps F-35B fighter jets and Royal Navy F-35s were on board -- forming the largest concentration of fifth-generation stealth fighters ever as sea. That same aircraft contingent is planned for the Pacific deployment.
                        As those exercises for the carrier strike group began, Moorhouse, its commander, noted the significance.
                        "Protected by a ring of advanced destroyers, frigates, helicopters and submarines, and equipped with fifth-generation fighters, HMS Queen Elizabeth is able to strike from the sea at a time and place of our choosing; and with our NATO allies at our side, we will be ready to fight and win in the most demanding circumstances," he said in a statement last fall.
                        'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
                        'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
                        Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
                        He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
                        http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

                        Comment


                        • After all the James Bond I watched at Christmas - Tomorrow Never Dies springs to mind

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Craghopper View Post
                            One of the Navy’s new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and will sail for only three years before being mothballed and possibly sold, ministers will announce on Tuesday

                            The Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will also confirm that Britain will not have an effective “carrier strike” capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – until 2020.
                            David Cameron had wanted to scrap one of the two carriers, the largest and most expensive vessels in British naval history, but the review found that contracts signed by the previous government meant that doing so would end up costing the taxpayer more than going ahead with both. As a result, the two carriers will enter service, but one will be mothballed as soon as possible.


                            http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...arry-jets.html
                            Seems they are carrying aircraft, and they will soon be conducting attacks from the decks of the HMS Queen Elizabeth direct into Iraq and Syria -

                            https://news.sky.com/story/dambuster...syria-12293926

                            Click image for larger version

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                            Last edited by RoyalGreenJacket; 3 May 2021, 13:56.
                            RGJ

                            ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

                            The Rifles

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                            • Presumably that means at some point there will be a transit through Suez.

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