I haven’t personally seen the 8 figure for the T31 absolutely anywhere, that would be good news though. Do you have any sources or any links to where you got the 8 figure from? It was not long ago I was seeing an increase from 5 to 6, an increase from 5 to 8 is probably too good to be true.

The RN was a major aircraft carrier power in WW2 compared to everyone but the US, it had many more carriers than anyone else going into the war and then produced more too. Also, it was a lot closer to the US than it is nowadays.

I agree it’s only a matter of time before we see an Euro Military, however I really cannot see the UK being apart of one. Throughout our time in the EU the UK has been the main force behind it not happening, due to the veto power it had over any large projects such as that. Once we leave and our veto isn’t in the way,…

I think we’re 100% on the same page here to be honest, the RN’s escort fleet size is the biggest issue facing the UK’s armed forces imo. They’re going to cut the steel for the T26 frigates next month (8 of them), and we’re supposedly going to order 6 T31 frigates, meaning in theory we’ll be replacing 13 T23 frigates…

Nothing concrete has been released or announced yet, mostly as it wouldn’t play well in the British press: “look at these ships we’ve paid billions for, that we’re now letting the US use”, obviously that is no bad thing and is actually a good thing for the Royal Navy, but for the uniformed reader, it doesn’t look good.

A war we were unprepared for that we still won, that is also England in a nutshell.

It’s just one of those things really, I wish we’d have manufactured 3-4 America-Class Amphibious ships rather than these 2 CVFs, swap? haha

Two issues that means this was NEVER going to happen and never should have happened:

Have a look at the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the future upgrades in the pipeline for it, when you compare it to the French equivalent for the CDG yes, I think the Royal Navy will manage to keep the QE at sea for more than a few week w/o US support. The tankers and Fleet Support Ships the UK has are equivalent to the…

Support carrier? I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, again, rather negative aren’t you? Her Carrier Strike Group will contain 2 Destroyers, 2 Frigates, an SSN Submarine and some RFA ships, along with F35, Chinooks, Merlins (including an ASW variant).

It’s a shame HMS Victory (google her) is in a dry dock and cannot be a part of HMS QE’s Carrier Strike Group!

Of course, but even on a more traditional one-island carrier, the person maneuvering the ship and the person launching planes isn’t the same person and more often than not isn’t in the same room. So there’s nothing to be too concerned about here :)

Exactly, the main point of having a flat-top is to have a small portable island of sovereign land that you can move around the world, that provides both soft and hard diplomatic solutions when needed. This QE Class Carrier provides a huge increase in capability for the RN in what it offers in comparison to the…

Quite a negative viewpoint really, considering we haven’t had a fixed wing carrier based presence in quite a while this is a huge jump in capability and should be a good addition to any US carrier group, in an ideal world things might be different but this is far from being a bad thing!

They’ll almost always have a Type 45 Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Missile destroyer in the carrier strike group anyway, so the phalanx should hopefully never need to be used.

There are no catapults fitted, so technically they don’t have enough power to get themselves in the air, especially with a heavy payload. The ramp is there as an alternative to cats and traps :)

HMS Invincible (R07) had a fairly illustrious (pun intended) career, she served in the Falklands, Yugoslav and Iraq War before being decommissioned a few years ago. The bad luck of calling a ship invincible didn’t seem to curse her too much.

I don’t disagree with that, my main point was the echo chamber they’ve created by having 3-4 people that all agree with each other on BMW then acting as if the rest of the world shares that opinion. I just don’t think they’re the most credible car reviewers, they get very overexcited by the latest toy they’ve been…

Drinking the BMW Kool Aid? Ha, do you not think they’ve drank way too much of the Mercedes Benz kool aid though? It’s pretty hilarious how anti-BMW they are compared to most professionals. They’ve created an echo chamber within the gang for which they just make anti-BMW jokes that no one really thinks in the real…

Vauxhall is a very popular marque in the UK, with the Corsa/Astra/Insignia selling well. If PSA kill off Vauxhall I’m not sure how happy people will be to then be sold an Opel.