HMS Queen Elizabeth

[Bouba]

The French are going to build a nuclear super carrier that should come into service just as the Charles de Gaulle is retired. But only one...so it won’t be available all the time....and a nuclear vessel needs a mid life refueling that can take over a year. French aviators train on American carriers when the CdG is not at sea

 

[westernman]

Apparently not as easy as that according to this chap.

I would have thought that nets would help prevent attacks by maritime drones.
He never mentioned them.

 

[Bouba]

There is even speculation that a heavily armored sea drone circles the ship attracting the crews attention and fire power while a suicide drone comes up undetected

 

[westernman]

There is even speculation that a heavily armored sea drone circles the ship attracting the crews attention and fire power while a suicide drone comes up undetected

My understanding is that they are all suicide drones.

 

[Daydream believer]

On the subject of drones I cannot understand why the small ones that carry a single grenade type weapon cannot be brought down with a shotgun or similar weapon.
I also read that some of the larger airborne drones fly a low level & slow speeds. I bet if someone were to dig up a few old spitfire pilots & their planes, they would have great fun hunting them down.

 

[Daydream believer]

There is even speculation that a heavily armored sea drone circles the ship attracting the crews attention and fire power while a suicide drone comes up undetected

Feathers, plus, bows & arrows, whilst making whooping noises??
I did see a BBC series about life on one of the carriers. One rating was being trained to use an automatic weapon mounted on the rail ( The gun not him).There was a target a couple of hundred yards away for him to aim at. From what one could see the safest place to be, would have been sitting on the target. I could not help wondering how he would have performed if the target had been an Israeli machine gunner firing back.
Best advice to offer, would have been to put his head down & run like f...k
However, in spite of wasting hundreds of bullets killing fish, there was a brief part where the captain was presenting the rating with a commendation for passing the qualification for actually hitting the sea & not anyone on the ship
The whole thing looked like an abject failure on the part of the instructor & the rating, followed by a box ticking exercise by the officer. .

 

[rotrax]

The weapon of choice for airborne slow missiles or drones is the radar controlled chain gun.

High speed missiles are the targets of the ship to air missiles.

As far back as WW2's Pacific Island invasions the US and the couple of British Carriers were protected by a screen of special AA ships and carrier borne aircraft.

Ships are very vunerable to attack from the air.

High tech answers are in place and are improving as technology and threats change.

A ship beating off air attack has to be lucky all the time. The attacker, as in the Falklands, has to be lucky once..........................................

 

[Baltika_no_9]

Feathers, plus, bows & arrows, whilst making whooping noises??
I did see a BBC series about life on one of the carriers. One rating was being trained to use an automatic weapon mounted on the rail ( The gun not him).There was a target a couple of hundred yards away for him to aim at. From what one could see the safest place to be, would have been sitting on the target. I could not help wondering how he would have performed if the target had been an Israeli machine gunner firing back.
Best advice to offer, would have been to put his head down & run like f...k
However, in spite of wasting hundreds of bullets killing fish, there was a brief part where the captain was presenting the rating with a commendation for passing the qualification for actually hitting the sea & not anyone on the ship
The whole thing looked like an abject failure on the part of the instructor & the rating, followed by a box ticking exercise by the officer. .

In the early '70s one of the P class submarines I was on used to load old Mk 8 torpedoes for disposal. The Norwegians were kind enough to let us use one of the their many fjords for this, even going to the effort of painting a big cross on the cliff that we were to aim for. If one exploded, the Scratcher used to go out and collect fresh fish which was a delight. Occasionally one or two would fail to explode but would sink below their crushing depth in the deep water. The Captain was often heard to utter an anecdote for the times when the detonation failed saying "I was sent to torpedo Norway but missed"

 

[wallacebob]

I think the drones being discussed on here are not airborne, but sea. Sea drones: What are they and how much do they cost?

 

[capnsensible]

Feathers, plus, bows & arrows, whilst making whooping noises??
I did see a BBC series about life on one of the carriers. One rating was being trained to use an automatic weapon mounted on the rail ( The gun not him).There was a target a couple of hundred yards away for him to aim at. From what one could see the safest place to be, would have been sitting on the target. I could not help wondering how he would have performed if the target had been an Israeli machine gunner firing back.
Best advice to offer, would have been to put his head down & run like f...k
However, in spite of wasting hundreds of bullets killing fish, there was a brief part where the captain was presenting the rating with a commendation for passing the qualification for actually hitting the sea & not anyone on the ship
The whole thing looked like an abject failure on the part of the instructor & the rating, followed by a box ticking exercise by the officer. .

How do you know that none of the bullets went through the target?

 

[capnsensible]

Interesting how warships from the UK, France, Germany, Greece and the USA are popping drones on a daily basis so that cheapo plastic stuff can be delivered from chinese factories.,

 

[Daydream believer]

In the early '70s one of the P class submarines I was on used to load old Mk 8 torpedoes for disposal. The Norwegians were kind enough to let us use one of the their many fjords for this, even going to the effort of painting a big cross on the cliff that we were to aim for. If one exploded, the Scratcher used to go out and collect fresh fish which was a delight. Occasionally one or two would fail to explode but would sink below their crushing depth in the deep water. The Captain was often heard to utter an anecdote for the times when the detonation failed saying "I was sent to torpedo Norway but missed"

Having been reading about our submarines & the submariners that crewed them, you deserve respect

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Having been reading about our submarines & the submariners that crewed them, you deserve respect

I am sure the crew were stalwart - the issue is suitability of vessel and its armament. The miss rate of cannon and such is high as is failure rate of shells or torpedoes hence the dangerous junk cluttering up old warzones

 

[wully1]

Interesting how warships from the UK, France, Germany, Greece and the USA are popping drones on a daily basis so that cheapo plastic stuff can be delivered from chinese factories.,

My ‘cheapo’ plastic thing is being diverted round COGH , not coming from China though. It can wave to the folk who designed it in S.A. On the way past.

 

[Koeketiene]

They are designed to be laid up two thirds of their life...but because there is only two they have to be stretched to be ready fifty percent of the time...and recently they have both been on active service together

Naval accounting:
- one ship -> you occasionally have one available for active duty
- two ships -> you have one ship available for active duty half the time
- three ships -> you have one ship available for active duty all of the time
- four ships -> you occasionally have two ships available for active duty

This is why the French navy is considering building 6 SSBN (iso the 4 planned) and two new aircraft carriers (PANG) iso the one currently planned.

 

[capnsensible]

For anyone interested, the return of HMS Prince of Wales will be on this webcam soon.

 

[Bouba]

The weather looks nicer there than it does here

 

[Daydream believer]

How do you know that none of the bullets went through the target?

Well an awful lot hit the sea yards away from the target & yes, one must have hit the target, simply because the law of averages must come in to play somehow. If one sprays an area with enough rounds then one might well hit something. Bit like trying to shoot pheasants with a shotgun.

 

[SaltIre]

For anyone interested, the return of HMS Prince of Wales will be on this webcam soon.

Presumably she'll need towed into Portsmouth by tugs.

 

[billskip]

one must have hit the target, simply because the law of averages must come in to play somehow. If one sprays an area with enough rounds then one might well hit something

Think like an American.....