Carrier Prince of Wales

[James Curry]

Just reading an update about this national embarrassment the Carrier Prince of Wales. According to the Daily Mail she is now being reduced to a scrap yard. there words not mine. She is being cannibalised and parts removed are being used in the Queen Elizabeth.
Surely someone must be held accountable for this be it the RN or more likely the builders , bloody disgrace. Time these projects were built in commercial yard. At least they will likely get the hull and the likes of propeller shaft alignment right. Thing is were would you get such a project built in the UK? to many years have gone by and it would appear we no longer have the skills.
Aye!! I can hear some here saying, here he goes again doing his anti UK rant. Perhaps but let's hear were your options for ship yards in the UK would be.
How comfortable would you be sailing into a war zone on these carriers. Yes the Prince of Wales !!!! (P.O.W) and that is if you survived a conflict that these ships may be involved in and the way the world is now with the nutter in Moscow or Beijing may not be long coming.
POW.jpg There are suggestions she was rushed out of the yard due to political interference ?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...a7a0dc5fc&ei=9

[Ivan Cloherty]

Yes quite agree that this state of affairs should not exist, however we have to be circumspect on the reporting which probably made by our special 'Shipping Correspondent' who may, or may not know the sharp end from the blunt end, even though carriers have two blunt ends!. It is normal to cannabalise vessels for spares they are in long term repair, this happens in the commercial field as well as the naval. Sometimes it is a quick solution for the recipient vessel as the donor vessel has no use for it at that time and the subsequent spares may be updated for the donor vessel when they are required and due to be fitted. However that sequence of events and reality will not make headlines.

[Johnny Kieran]

Not all that old if I remember rightly, terrible waste of my money.

[James Curry]

Agree Ivan , I can understand the cannabilisation of the POW. Specialist equipment in a repair yard could well be rendered useless just sitting there so makes sense to use as spares. But no doubt about it these 2 ships seem to be the next White Elephants to join the long list of disasters that takes place all to often in our the armed forces. Not just the UK forces I may add.

[vic mcclymont]

The UK Defence Journal reported many months ago, that the problems were not with propellor.
The problem was due misalignment with both shafts.
Vic

[James Curry]

In this age how can you make a balls up of misaligning the Stern tube and propshafts.

Bet this did not help.
The ships are built in blocks or modules, with pieces being constructed around the country and sent to Rosyth in Fife., is part of the ship’s hull. It was constructed in the Govan shipyard by BAE Systems and taken by barge to Rosyth. Why did they not just do the whole job in a yard that could have contructed the hulls. Seems a very expensive way of building anything.
There is nothing new about modular ship construction. The Japanese , South Koreans and Chinese seem to be able to manage it. Sorry but we are clueless.

[vic mcclymont]

The stern blocks were built in BAE Portsmouth.
There was no single yard I the ULcapable of building a ship of this size.
By building the carriers in this fashion, it created jobs around the country.
Rosyth dry Dock had to be modified, depth increased, wider gates fitted, large crane installed too facilitate lifting the blocks

[Jim R Christie]

Agree Ivan , I can understand the cannabilisation of the POW. Specialist equipment in a repair yard could well be rendered useless just sitting there so makes sense to use as spares. But no doubt about it these 2 ships seem to be the next White Elephants to join the long list of disasters that takes place all to often in our the armed forces. Not just the UK forces I may add.

I'd say cannibilisation is only understandable or indeed justifiable for ships that are getting on in years.
These two are nearly brand new, so for the navy to not have a full suite of spares available for both ships is unforgivable, especially since both are supposed to be in commission concurrently, at least initially. Robbing a part for the short term whilst awaiting replacement is understandable, but not if it's a medium to long term feature.
Unfortunately the RN is going down the same well worn path as they did with Albion and Bulwark. With that pair they can only afford to have one ship in commission at a time and that vessel has all the spares whilst the other is heavily cannibalised and nominally in "extended readiness", but in reality would take somewhere between 18 months to 2 years to reactivate. We were used to it with Fearless/Intrepid from the 1980s onwards but the excuse there at least was that they were elderly ships with a unique machinery setup; they were the last steamers in the surface fleet.
These two new carriers are in reality just vanity projects. They have doubtful strategic value, we don't have enough aircraft for them, nor enough other warships and RFA's to support and protect them. In addition they're a massive headache with regards to the huge amount of manpower required to operate them; quite literally other warships are laid up due to lack of men.
Newer versions of Ocean would have been a far more sensible idea, particularly with a dock for landing craft.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

One thing we all have to realize is that Britain once had an Empire, no longer can they call on them to come to their assistance. They will like many Western countries find it difficult to con young men to die for them, especially after Iraq and Afghanistan, For example Australia is desperately trying to get back on terms with China despite what you may read in the British Press, they are our biggest trading partners, America is just about 25% of our trade, if China shuts the door to our trade we will be in the biggest depression Australia has ever seen. We are now realigning our defense, stopping the production of Trucks, Tanks,exetra and going to concentrate on missiles, no way could Australia fight a soldier type war like they used to, not unless the politicians Brigade go in first.
Des

[Donald Young]

Subs are the only way to go in the future in my opinion--don.