BAE wins contract for new UK Carrier. "Ours are still bigger." Says Bush

[Lonestar]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2706727.stm

The Ministry of Defence order is made up of £2.9bn in building costs for two aircraft carriers, but billions of pounds will also be spent on maintaining the ships over their service lives.

The two 950-foot-long, 60,000-tonne carriers will be the biggest British warships ever built.

Well, British Aerospace, with it's competitor "providing the main design" has won the contract for construction of two new large carriers for the British Navy. The two carriers will replace the three aging (though not quite as old as the Kitty Hawk) Invincible class Light Carriers.

Well Britons, what do you think? Is it a good idea to return large flattops, or is it just a pointless Boondoggle?

[Lonestar]

As you can see, the layout is quite different from both American, French, and "miscellaneous" large carriers. Looks a bit weird to me.

[DarthVeda]

I don't know why the Royal navy would be doing that when they signed on for the JSF...

[H Tower]

well if they are going to continue pleasing bush, they'll need a military that can actually do something

[Sandman]

Boondoogle.

BAE (not called British Aerospace any more) have screwed up their last two jobs, and I can't see this doing much better. The actual design (quite cool, although why two towers are needed is beyond me) is from the rival bid from French company Thales. So the two rivals are now working together, great, more opportunity for overruns.

BAE employs a lot of people in Britain, so there's also political considerations. Britains biggest ship yard, in Ulster, could have built it in one piece, and Ulster could certainly use the work, but it's being built in sections across many little shipyards about mainland Britain.

It's also not nuclear powered.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Sandman
Boondoogle.

....

It's also not nuclear powered.

I suspect the reason why it's not Nuclear powered falls under a couple reasons:

1) It was a matter of cost, which could have chopped up some more of the British Fleet.

2) It's really easy to hose up on a Nuclear Carrier if you don't know what you are doing. The first US CVN (the Enterprise) has *8* reactors in it. The French CVN is powered by Sub reactors, and it barely makes 30 kts, well below the "unofficial" official speed of 50 or so for Nimitz CVNs.

3) Not every country will allow a CVN in port. That's why the only carriers we stage out of Japan are older CVs.

[*End Is Forever*]

BAE employs a lot of people in Britain, so there's also political considerations. Britains biggest ship yard, in Ulster, could have built it in one piece, and Ulster could certainly use the work, but it's being built in sections across many little shipyards about mainland Britain.

Might well have hit the nail on the head here. This announcement supposedly secures 10000 jobs, and creates a further 2000. Big numbers...

[*End Is Forever*]

Anyway... as for what I think... I'm indifferent. More interested in the new trains for Midland Mainline and Hull Trains, amongst others...

[*End Is Forever*]

Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of them...

[chequita guevara]

Why does it have two control towers?

[*End Is Forever*]

In case one gets blown up?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
In case one gets blown up?

But if the command staff is destroyed with one, what point is there in the second?

Perhaps a decoy?

[ravagon]

Originally posted by DarthVeda
I don't know why the Royal navy would be doing that when they signed on for the JSF...

IIRC the JSF project is supposed to include a naval variant.

Design looks quite a bit like the Kuznetsov (or whatever they've renamed it as this month) and the tonnage is rather similar too ...

[*End Is Forever*]

I've no idea. Is the picture part of the bid submission or was it just an artist's impression anyway?

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Why does it have two control towers?

One reason I've heard is that each tower also doubles as a smokestack. I don't know why that would be nesscary though....

*E-I-F*

That's the Artist rendintion of the Thales design, the design that won, although BAE got the contract to build the damn thing.

Any takers on names?