Originally Posted by
Compass Call
I read in todays Telegraph that in the RN fleet of ships not available to escort either of the two unserviceable aircraft carriers to the Med, there is HMS Sutherland which is "regenerating"!
Does this mean that it is part of "The Borg" fleet from Star Trek?
Anybody enlighten me as to what "regenerating" in navy speak means?
Or is it just another newspaper mis-print?
There is one "unserviceable aircraft carrier" - QNLZ in Rosyth, still in refit. PWLS is serviceable and now at five days notice for sea. There has been an awful lot of blather where the word unserviceable has been tossed around by people who don't understand it (not least the sadly diminished Torygraph).
Regeneration means a programme once the ship comes out of refit of tests and trials on ships systems and weapons, to be followed by a work-up period to get the crew through a number of training serials. At which point the ship is deemed fully operational. That regeneration depends on how long the ship has been in upkeep. If a deep refit, you're talking months, if a fleet time upkeep, much less than that.
Quite why we need to deploy a ship to the vicinity of our strategic air base in the Med because it does not appear to be well defended remains beyond my understanding.