Royal Navy - Fleet Air Arm: News

Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but the F-35 is not a good aircraft, and the VSTOL version is the least capable... I can understand the UK buying it so they can save money with a smaller carrier but the current carriers are bigger than the Kuznetsov, from which conventional fighters can operate from.

The problems with the F-35 are not just serious... the fundamental problem is that the maker and the customers don't seem interested in finding solutions to the problems.

The enormous purchase price and operating costs means order numbers are going to decrease over time which is only going to make the in service aircraft even more expensive.

I don't like to see aircraft crash, but considering the operational costs of the F-35 a crashed plane is much cheaper than an operational plane...

The sooner the Tempest is a thing the better.... are they planning VSTOL versions?

I would think a lightweight 5th gen aircraft like that with internal weapons and powerful engines should be able to get airborne with an air to air load out without a ramp or catapult.

The next French carrier is supposed to be nuclear powered, 75K tons and with cats... I guess for the UK their carriers are too new to be thinking about their next carriers.

Hahahaha.... Imagine a more palatable Jeremy Corbin type is actually elected in the UK and they decide on a better relationship with Russia and they end up with a Checkmate with British Radar and British engines that they have the licence to sell to Commonwealth countries and they end up making enormous numbers of them and end up with a carrier capable model...

Back when the Eurofighter partners split, one of the reasons was because the French wanted a fighter that could operate from their carriers and be capable of ground attacks.

Back when there was the idea of making a combined UK/France carrier design, the main difference in both designs was the French wanted a catapult, and preferably nuclear powered. They ended up compromising on a conventional powered carrier design which could either have catapults (for the French) or not (for the UK). The French ended up scrapping that design and are now going for a nuclear powered carrier with catapults anyway.

I can't help but think if the UK had followed the French specifications in the first place they would have ended up with better capabilities. I understand the issues about workshare and whatnot would probably mean the French would go their own way. But the UK always seems to pick the poorer overall choice for whatever reason.

Even if you consider the choices were done to cut cost, at least in the case of the Rafale vs Eurofighter the Eurofighter isn't any cheaper.
At one point there was consideration for making a naval version of the Eurofighter but that got shot down unfortunately.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/royal-navy-hms-queen-elizabeth-and-carrier-strike-groups-deployment-in-numbers-including-nautical-miles-sausages-eaten-and-more-3491559%3famp

HMS Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the Carrier Strike Group have returned to Portsmouth.

A throwback to October

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/usa-uk-southchinasea-10072021172517.html/ampRFA

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/08/asia/british-warships-pacific-deployment-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

The first Type 31 frigate HMS Venturer, was laid down on April 26.

https://www.babcockinternational.com/sv/news/keel-laying-for-royal-navys-type-31-frigate-showcases-babcock-workforce/

British Navy commissions fifth Astute-class submarine HMS Anson

The lead British frigate Glasgow of the new type 26 was launched

Royal Navy's new attack submarine, SSNR, will have a VLS. Major break from the Astute class.

The article says that it's easier to do an at sea resupply of TLAM with them stored/fired horizontally in the torpedo room than vertically in VLS cells.

Perhaps because reloading VLS at sea proved very difficult, on ships and more so submarines which are even less stable

Reloading torpedoes or similar objects on the slant, which Royal Navy subs can do, is done however.

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/01/britains-new-attack-submarine-to-be-first-with-vertical-launch-system/

Team Resolute, comprising of BMT, Harland & Wolff, and Navantia UK, has been awarded a contract to deliver three Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Earlier in November 2022, the UK Department of Defense selected the proposal of the Team Resolute consortium in the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) program, which has been dragging on for a long time since 2017, which means the choice of the FSS ship project submitted by the British design company VMT.

The FSS program provides for the construction of three large integrated supply ships to provide new British aircraft carrier formations. According to the contract concluded with Team Resolute, the construction of the lead ship should begin in 2025, with the introduction of all three units into the Royal Navy by 2032.

As part of the Royal Navy, three new FSS ships should nominally replace four integrated supply ships - two types of Fort Rosalie (built in the late 1970s) and two types of Fort Victoria (built in the early 1990s). At the same time, in fact, now only one ship of this class A 387 Fort Victoria remains in the British fleet. The second ship of the same type A 388 Fort George was decommissioned back in 2011, and both ships of the Fort Rosalie type (A 385 Fort Rosalie and A 386 Fort Austin ) were withdrawn from the Navy in 2021 and sold to Egypt.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4647992.html

This class is a total fiasco. Been more parked for repairs than at sea.

An unhappy Brit.

An unhappy Brit.

Isn´t being unhappy a trademark of being British?
Unless drunk, of course.

He is just pointing out the problem with most of the west... they are worried about how things look rather than how they perform, so two unreliable carriers and unreliable frigates and they call that a navy, but they don't have the support ships to operate them.

The Royal Navy is a shell of what it was, and could not repeat what it did in the Falklands again if it wanted to... perhaps that is why it was so critical for Argentina to not be part of BRICS... imagine if China and the other BRICS countries managed to help them sort out their economy and make it work and they had a few years of solid growth and fiscal responsibility where they paid off much of their debts and started developing... buying a few subs and ships from Russia and China and the Falklands are starting to look attainable...

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/royal-navys-aircraft-carriers-look-worse-useless-209283

To be fair, they hadn't built CVs for decades before these 2.
Perhaps the UK can pay for CVN-68/69 upcoming refuelings so they can change their homeport to Portsmouth instead of being deactivated?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13138221/Britains-cash-strapped-Navy-forced-sell-aircraft-carrier-HMS-Prince-Wales.html

Britain's cash-strapped Navy 'may be forced to sell off its £3.5 billion aircraft carrier the HMS Prince of Wales' amid funding issues

Last night a naval source told the Mail the nightmare scenario of selling a carrier to spare funds had been discussed by members of the Maritime Enterprise Planning Group, which looks at future considerations and strategies.
He said: 'There's an awareness in the group that the Navy is struggling to maintain operational commitments and has to expand the fleet as rapidly as possible.

'The second carrier is an asset that is held in reserve and is a very expensive piece of rarely-used equipment. So if we want to address balance sheet issues, disposing of her or sharing her with say an AUKUS [Australia, UK and US] ally, is an option.'

Send them both and whichever makes it to Australia then Australia can buy.

They can sell the other as a submarine...

Funny we have the sky is falling comments about the Russian Navy, but no real comments about the UK or US or French navies for that matter...

Look at the performance against the Houthies... even the German ships fail to shoot down US drones and US drones are easy targets... flying straight and level they should be sitting ducks for an air defence system... that sort of drone flys at medium altitude and is not stealthy so it should be easy to see and track.

Could it be adapted to launch Mig29k?

Maybe India could be interested.

that sort of drone flys at medium altitude and is not stealthy so it should be easy to see and track.

Seeing and tracking wasn´t the problem. The missiles malfunctioned.
Don´t know if they made a Trident or their electronics sucked.
Bad week for american MIC.
Abrams killed.
Trident failed.
Multiple SM-2 missiles failed.

Last issue with the missile was the same as with Trident.
The engine refused to work. It fell back and damaged the ship slightly.
Happened a few years ago.