MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Public debate erupts in UK over the building of two (one?) air carriers
British Ministry of Defence revealed that contracts worth about £1.25bn have been awarded for building two aircraft carriers even though the project may not go ahead, figures have revealed. The figures came in answer to a parliamentary question by a Labour MP. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesFrom what i've read, it wouldnt save them much money to scrap them now.
Sep 12th, 2010 - 12:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They're mostly paid for already.
Exactly, it's pointless scraping them
Sep 12th, 2010 - 01:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't think it's the cost of the carriers themselves, but the costs of equipping them with f35's.
Sep 12th, 2010 - 02:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I suppose they could just delay the project and use the current carrier with the f35's for a few more years. Bad timing for defence cuts as the navy is in the middle of totally upgrading the whole fleet.
There are suggestions that the British Government has already discarded the use of the F-35 for the carriers. The F-35A has always been a non-starter for the Royal Navy because it is a conventional take-off and landing. The F-35B has apparently been discarded because it has become too expensive, lacks capability, i.e. payload and range and does not have a Ship-borne Rolling and Vertical Landing mode meaning that operation of the 35Bs would interfere with normal carrier operations. The F-35C has never been an option. Increasing costs and the continued refusal of the United States to release the source code for the aircraft's systems have essentially ruled the F-35 out.
Sep 12th, 2010 - 06:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Government is apparently considering the F/A-18F. However, Eurofighter GmbH insists that a naval version of the Typhoon is perfectly practicable. With the phasing-out of the Tornados, a naval Typhoon would mean that, effectively, the RAF and RN would be using the same combat aircraft.
The Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are being built in a manner that enables them to be quickly adapted to STOVL, STOBAR and CATOBAR configurations. In the meantime, Converteam UK is developing and electro-magnetic catapult system for the carriers.
Trouble is because the F35 is a joint project and agreements have already beenn made for purchase, the partners could sue the MOD through the ass if they pulled out of a joint project just because the UK govt is having credit card issues, could end up costing alot more.
Sep 12th, 2010 - 08:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0remember these carriers will be in service 6 years from now, plenty of time to raise the cash.
The other alternative would be to get the sea harriers out from cold storage and re-commission them, considering the F-35 is know twice the cost and over due by 4 years, it seemed remarkably short sighted by the Labor govt to retire the aircraft after only 20 years for the FRS1 and 13 for the FA2, all just to go and waste it all on creating public sector jobs which now have to be cut!
I think the idea of a carrier typhoon is the best idea.
Sep 12th, 2010 - 11:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@5 Rhaurie. Sorry to disagree with you but the F-35 is not really a “joint” project. It is a project to which the UK has contributed all it is going to contribute. Purchases are options.
Sep 13th, 2010 - 01:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0No point in getting the Harriers out of storage, cold or otherwise. However good they were in '82, and let's face it they were very good, the airframes are beyond their useful, safe life. A pity because they are/were very good British aircraft.
We need to develop a means of converting standard Typhoons to carrier Typhoons, the most important things being to change the wings and undercarriage, get Eurofighter to build naval Typhoons that we can buy until we leave the EU. Then convert any additional standard Typhoons needed.
Trust me on this. Naval Typhoons on a CATOBAR carrier would be awesome. Incidentally, it is worth bearing in mind that studies reckon that the Typhoon is a match for the F-22 Raptor.
I don't know if we are leaving the EU, But we don't need to “buy” eurofighters, we are perfectly capable of building them ourselves, the UK put the most effort into the project, which is why the french left it, they demanded to lead the project.
Sep 13th, 2010 - 03:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Im unsure if the F22 is even as good as they say it is, they won't allow it to mock fight other planes, there was a report that a typhoon got a radar lock on one, but the pentigon quickly dismissed these claims.
In tests so far the Typoon has done very well, i read one mock fight 8 EF's vs 27 other planes including harriers, f15's and other jets and the Ef's “killed” all the other jets with no losses. Also a chance encounter with 2 f-15's and the single EF came out better.
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