CVF and Carrier Strike thread

[Mattb]

Interesting, but calling the two carriers "the HMS" grates.

What do you expect from a site that can’t spell defence correctly in its own URL though?

 

[PhotEx]

And I would say that provides the definitive opinion on how good Merlin is.

no one doubts one minute how good it’s ASW systems are, but it has, and always will have, very serious issues with reliability and availability. It’s a shrinking fleet and no one has shown any interest in buying any more, not a single one bought since the initial launch order in 1999.

Now, in your own time, square the circle of just 25 available HM2’s for the RNs ASW/AEW aspirations.

14 are ring fenced for Carrier Strike
8 for T23
That leaves just 3 available to cover AEW training, breakdowns, breakages etc - and thats before the RN carries through with any ideas of growing its fleet or sending a second carrier to sea in an emergency. The numbers simply don’t work.

it’s no big secret the RN is 20 ASW helicopters short of where it needs to be to cover its operational needs. If that operational circle is to be squared, a buy of new ASW helicopters will be required - and that will be SH-60 or NH-90, choose one.

And no, we can’t magic 20 more up out of the 12 HM1’s in storage - ‘some assembly needed’ would be a polite way of describing their state. When the navy was told it could afford to refit 8, it took a sawzall to them.

 

[Himmler74]

Take it up with the people in the RN Phot branch captioning their pictures.

@Guns clean up on aisle three here please, our Irish reporter is having A trump
moment.

@PhotEx i get you hate the British, yet you live here, I get you love the Americans, until Russia takes your fancy. Why not jog on over to the model forum where all the Cold War warriors build fantasy, or try minecraft, if you can beat my 14 mount hold lab I’ll buy you a AI rifle.

 

[Raven2008]

Meanwhile, some more titbits on the Asian deployment...

American warship, F-35 jets to deploy with British fleet

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and U.S. acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller co-signed a joint declaration approving the deployment of U.S. Marine and U.S. Navy assets as part of a carrier strike group led by the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

www.defensenews.com

I imagine VMFA-211 Wake Island Avengers should be returning to Marham before or around Easter to prepare again for deployment.

U.S., U.K. Sign Agreement on Upcoming Deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth with American F-35Bs, Destroyer - USNI News

The U.S. and U.K. defense secretaries formally signed an agreement outlining their joint participation in the Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group deployment this spring. Joining HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) on its inaugural deployment will be Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, which flies...

news.usni.org

Last year it was great to see them arrive after sundown in September especially their CO bird which is colourful tail (my photos below).

Cheers

 

[Cold_Collation]

Always amazes me for the stated performance of the radar how small the nose is.

 

[ZW Clanger]

I imagine VMFA-211 Wake Island Avengers should be returning to Marham before or around Easter to prepare again for deployment.

U.S., U.K. Sign Agreement on Upcoming Deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth with American F-35Bs, Destroyer - USNI News

The U.S. and U.K. defense secretaries formally signed an agreement outlining their joint participation in the Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group deployment this spring. Joining HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) on its inaugural deployment will be Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, which flies...

news.usni.org

Last year it was great to see them arrive after sundown in September especially their CO bird which is colourful tail (my photos below).

View attachment 541026View attachment 541027View attachment 541028

Cheers

Why the coloured tail?

 

[Cold_Collation]

Why the coloured tail?

As he says, it's the boss's aircraft.

 

[Himmler74]

Always amazes me for the stated performance of the radar how small the nose is.

It’s a big unit to begin with, bigger in many aspects than the GR4

 

[Cold_Collation]

It’s a big unit to begin with, bigger in many aspects than the GR4

I guess perspective is all.

 

[Guns]

Beg your pardon I did not mean to take away the thread, just educating Photex.

cheers

Oh don’t get me wrong I love it when he gets schooled. Just there are sad, man made fibre wearing slip on shoes spotters who thrapp themselves dry over those pictures. However I’d rather not encourage them in this forum.

 

[Gravelbelly]

Always amazes me for the stated performance of the radar how small the nose is.

F-35 has a fixed plate AESA antenna; you don't need the volume to chuck around a yard-wide lump of metal antenna so it can point up, down, and sideways across its full range of movement...

...Typhoon's CAPTOR-M antenna wasn't exactly huge (bigger than Sea Harrier, mind you), and AIUI it was probably the best-performing radar of its type.

 

[Mattb]

I guess perspective is all.

Slightly off-topic, but have you ever seen a Le Mans prototype up close?

They’re pretty small, but because they have a tiny windscreen it fools the mind into thinking that the screen is normal size and the rest of the car is huge.

 

[ThunderBox]

Slightly off-topic, but have you ever seen a Le Mans prototype up close?

They’re pretty small, but because they have a tiny windscreen it fools the mind into thinking that the screen is normal size and the rest of the car is huge.

So if I put a tiny windscreen above my cock it will look massive?

 

[Mattb]

So if I put a tiny windscreen above my cock it will look massive?

I think tiny balls would be the analogue there.

 

[twentyfirstoffoot]

So if I put a tiny windscreen above my cock it will look massive?

To Barbie perhaps.

 

[ThunderBox]

Is the CH-53 anything like a Merlin? I mean all these numbers do my head in, but we see on another thread the US looking at a new heavy lift, anything better for ASW platforms?

 

[alfred_the_great]

Is the CH-53 anything like a Merlin? I mean all these numbers do my head in, but we see on another thread the US looking at a new heavy lift, anything better for ASW platforms?

If you think the Merlin is big, wait until you meet a CH-53. The thing is f*cking massive - far too big for a helicopter to have on FF/DD, and frankly far too big to be sensible in the ASW battle.

 

[Lindermyer]

Is the CH-53 anything like a Merlin? I mean all these numbers do my head in, but we see on another thread the US looking at a new heavy lift, anything better for ASW platforms?

In as much as its got a ramp, 3 engines** and a big spinney thing on top yes.

Its a lot bigger though - its as big as, if not bigger than Chinook- I dont doubt you could get it to do Merlins job if you fitted the requisite Systems and plenty of space for additional tanks to increase range - but I suspect the operating cost would be prohibitive.





**in case of Pedants I know thats the "Super" early models had 2

 

[alfred_the_great]

To provide a sense of scale of the thing.

 

[ThunderBox]

If you think the Merlin is big, wait until you meet a CH-53. The thing is f*cking massive - far too big for a helicopter to have on FF/DD, and frankly far too big to be sensible in the ASW battle.

Yeah OK, I was following this thread and the ASW platform and wondered why CH-53 hadn’t been mentioned.

The book I was reading said the MV-22 was very tight and they preferred flying into the fight in the CH-53.