On Radio 4 news this morning it stated that the contracts had been signed to build the largest aircraft carriers this contry has ever had. There are four companies invoived in this project, one of them is French. Is it true that the French company will build the hulls in France? Does anybody know anything about this?
The RN hulls will be built in the UK in 4 sections and towed to Rosyth for final assembly , the French will built their carrier themselves. Its only Thales that did a lot of the design work not any of their construction companies that are involved in the RN ships (Thumb)
The complicated answer is both Jeff. The basic design is for a CTOL CV design with arrester's and catapults , which is what the French Navy will be building , but the RN versions will have the STOVL JSF fighters and operate as a bow ramp carrier. In future if the RN needs to go back to CTOL they can and the ships will be built with all the fixtures ready to take the catapults ( probably a version of the new Electro-Magnetic catapults being built for the next generation of USN CVN's ) and arrester wires.
The Thales company that is involved in this project is in fact a wholly British based company. Its shares are owned by the French organisation. The ships are being built to this company's basic design, which was selected by the MoD as being better than that proposed by BAE. Since that initial selection, Thales and BAE have been jointly working on the design development.
The French government will not decide on a possible order for their second carrier until next year. If they go ahead, their ship will be a conventional landing and catapult ship. One problem is that the British design is too big for the largest building dock in the French Navy's DCN organisation. (The size of their existing carrier was governed by the size of this dock) This can be overcome by building the hull in the civilian Chantier de l'Atlantique facility that built Queen Mary 2, but the French trade unions at DCN will start World War 3 if this happens. There is a strong chance that the French carrier will not be built.
When these carriers eventually put to sea what will be the composition of our Carrier Battle Group to give protection to these ships, given the huge cost of this ships and all the reductions else where to pay for them will there be any surface ships left to protect them?
The intended Battle Group will consist of a combination of Type 45 Area Air Defence Destroyers, Type 23 Frigates (until their replacements arrive about 2020) an Astute Attack Submarine and new RFAs including one designed to carry aircraft weapon stores plus any amphibious ships required for a specific mission.
What propulsion system will these new carriers have? - I assume it will be gas turbines but will it be with electric drive such as the Type 23 frigates?
No it will be fully electric like the new Type 45's. The carrier's propulsion system will be Integrated Full Electric Propulsion (IFEP) with Rolls-Royce Marine Trent MT30 36 MW gas turbine generator units.
I heard this directly from a member of the carrier alliance: Because of the lack of coded welders in the UK they are considering having the bows built in Poland and shipped back here. The worry is that they think the bows will be of better construction than the rest of the ship!
Though the news of the carriers is good and I understand the historic nature of the names they are going to be given-Queen Elizabeth & POW-I cannot feel a tad sad that two of this countries greatest WW2 Admirals, Cunningham and Horton are still awaiting the honour of having a ship named after them.
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