Ship geeks in ere - US Carrier in UK

Flukester

Flukester

Flukester

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Dont know if anyone knows or is interested, there is currently a US carrier strikegroup moored just off Portsmouth coast though not sure what other ships are there, i think one of the escorts is moored by dockyard.

USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN71, leaves on 8th i think, but you can get tours round the ship (not onboard though) from gun wharf by rib or bigger ship....

Might have to go check this beast out all 100,000 tons of her, she's only 5 times the size of one of our toy carriers :)

Some photos here...

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7885&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75
 
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One of the fleets was moored somewhere off Majorca a few years ago when I was on holiday, Magaluf was full of drunken sailors and loads of MP's to keep order
 
If I'm not mistaken, an American carrier can't even fit through the opening in Portsmouth harbour, whereas UK carriers can (I lived there for the first 18 years of my life). UK carriers are smaller, cheaper, require less crew and cheaper to maintain. All because we have Harrier jets with VTOL. Alas, the Americans don't like Harriers very much, so they need ridiculously long runways on their carriers, hence immense size and cost.

But the Americans have never done things small, have they? :p
 
Flukester said:
2 is plenty, 5 * the planes than our current 2, and with the new f35s i hate to think how much more strike power we'll have... cant wait
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They will be awesome, i'm not denying that. But won't 1 be in repair most of the time leaving us with only 1 deployable ship? Surely that can't be that great? I would have thought 3 would have been better to allow for 2 to be in service at any one time.
 
I suspect maybe the draft is too much for Portsmouth's or Southamptons datum low tides. Particularly if it's spring tides and not neaps. Other factor could simply be cost in so far as that to moor her alongside the quay may not be nescessary. Say if they're just stocking up or diagnosing lightweight tech problems.

With the way things are I guess maybe France, Spain and Belgium didn't want to entertain it, or couldn't. Impressive though:)
 
Fido McNasty said:
I suspect maybe the draft is too much for Portsmouth's or Southamptons datum low tides. Particularly if it's spring tides and not neaps. Other factor could simply be cost in so far as that to moor her alongside the quay may not be nescessary. Say if they're just stocking up or diagnosing lightweight tech problems.

With the way things are I guess maybe France, Spain and Belgium didn't want to entertain it, or couldn't. Impressive though:)
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No, I'm telling you. An American carrier cannot fit into Portsmouth Harbour. If you've ever seen the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour, you'd think it was incredible for even our own ships to squeeze through. It's practically spitting distance to Gosport from the Round Tower.
 
I've seen the photos from people who have taken the trip around the carrier and it looks worthwhile. I believe it's £10 for the boat and £12 for the RIB with three trips a day.

lucasade1 said:
Yeah... all 2 of them :(
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Twice as many as the French!

When (assuming they do get them) we will have enough problems filling one with jets let alone two!

lucasade1 said:
They will be awesome, i'm not denying that. But won't 1 be in repair most of the time leaving us with only 1 deployable ship? Surely that can't be that great? I would have thought 3 would have been better to allow for 2 to be in service at any one time.
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At £3.9 billion for those two we can barely afford it. The RN has already had to make cuts in other projects to pay for them.
 
Are our 2 new carriers on hold at the moment ? From what I have read they will fly Harriers initially until the F-35's come into operational service.
 
SlyReaper said:
No, I'm telling you. An American carrier cannot fit into Portsmouth Harbour. If you've ever seen the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour, you'd think it was incredible for even our own ships to squeeze through. It's practically spitting distance to Gosport from the Round Tower.
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Ok :)

I haven't lived there for 18 years but I have seen it from both the yacht perspective and from ashore. I hear you.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
At £3.9 billion for those two we can barely afford it. The RN has already had to make cuts in other projects to pay for them.
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Which is such a shame, the navy seems to be heading into an era of brilliant ships, but fewer actually being built under the argument of being more powerful than the older classes.
 
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lucasade1 said:
They will be awesome, i'm not denying that. But won't 1 be in repair most of the time leaving us with only 1 deployable ship? Surely that can't be that great? I would have thought 3 would have been better to allow for 2 to be in service at any one time.
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given the good boy nature of the uk, i'm surprised at 2. i'm very much a nationalist and think we have some of the best people in the world but then we shoot ourselves in the foot by letting dregs/foreigners doss here.
 
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