Conrad Waters assesses the Royal Navy’s newest – and largest – aircraft carrier, and its progress towards delivery and entry into service.
The summer of 2017 has seen significant progress towards delivering the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, Queen Elizabeth. On 26 June the huge vessel was slowly edged out of the nontidal basin at Rosyth Dockyard to commence initial sea trials in the North Sea.
Subsequently, on 16 August, she made a maiden entry into her home port of Portsmouth in a blaze of media publicity and under the gaze of thousands of onlookers. However, further work remains to be done before she is commissioned into Royal Navy service. And it will be even longer before she becomes an operational fighting ship.
BACKGROUND
Queen Elizabeth’s origins can be traced back to the 1990s, when studies were undertaken to examine replacements for the Invincible class ‘Harrier carriers’. This programme gained momentum in 1998, when the Blair government’s Strategic Defence Review committed to acquiring two new, large strike carriers to replace the three, small existing ships. The new aircraft carriers were seen as central to a post-Cold War concept of operations that envisaged British forces being deployed across the globe on missions in an unpredictable world.
Although the concept was clear, agreeing the precise design and capabilities of the new ships was more complicated. There was much debate over the merit of continuing to use the STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) method of aircraft launch and recovery adopted by the Invincible class, compared with the CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) system utilised, for example, in US Navy aircraft carriers. There were also questions over whether the ships could be afforded as the defence budget came under increasing pressure from the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2017 من Ships Monthly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2017 من Ships Monthly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
PROPULSION REVOLUTION
Jim Shaw summarises the efforts being made by the world’s shipping industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, and how these efforts are reshaping marine propulsion and vessel design in light of new IMO 2020 regulations.
THE HISTORIC FERRY BORE
Thomas Rinaldi profiles the historic motor ship Bore, now a combination museum and hotel ship docked permanently in Turku, originally built in 1960 by Oskarshamn shipyard in Sweden as the car/passenger ferry Bore for the Steamship Company Bore.
On duty from the Thames to Mesopotamia
Russell Plummer recalls the contribution made by excursion ships and ferry paddle steamers, large and small, during the two World Wars.
Space Ships
Patrick Boniface describes the ocean ships that recovered the space ships involved in the Apollo and Skylab missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hebridean Isles West Coast Stalwart
Marking her 35th anniversary in 2020, Caledonian MacBrayne’s long-serving stalwart Hebridean Isles can be found as one of two regular vessels serving Islay on Scotland’s west coast. Mark Nicolson looks at a vessel which is a popular sight wherever she goes, with her name appropriately reflecting the areas served by CalMac.
Spirit Of Discovery
Saga Cruises’ first new cruise ship in its history, Spirit of Discovery, made her debut in July. William Mayes went on board to assess the facilities on the new ship, which is arguably the most significant new cruise ship for Britain since Oriana of 1995.
Bravo!
Memories of the decrepit-looking cargo ship Bravoaltona arriving at Avonmouth in September 1976, and an awareness of a fleet of former Dutch ships with names commencing Bravo, led Malcolm Cranfield to research two different Greek-owned fleets.
The World's Biggest Ships
A decade and a half ago Ships Monthly reported on the world’s biggest ships and most have continued to grow, as Jim Shaw reports.
ACL G4 Class Profile Of The New G4 Class Of Con-ros
Matt Davies goes behind the scenes on Atlantic Container Line’s new G4 ships, which are the largest con-ros in the world.
A Great British Ship
SS Great Britain is a ship worthy of the name ‘Great’. When launched in 1843, she was the biggest ship in the world, had an iron hull and was fitted with a steam-powered propeller. James Hendrie describes her career, which ended with her being placed on display in Bristol, the city where she was built.
