A new helicopter carrier would have been a lot cheaper.....................

Looks like the tents are starting to come down today (check out the HMS Warrior live webcam). Anyone know what all the tents/plant/scaffolding etc. that have been on the flight deck for the past few weeks were for? Connected with rectifying the defect(s) encountered during FOST or perhaps some other maintenance/modification/upgrade in preparation for WESTLANT 19?
The webcam shows great live pictures of the ship when she undocks and sails out of harbour.

Which webcam? Any link?

You could do with a new set of minesweepers as well - pity you used all the money on the carriers

Looking at that Webcam ... has anyone made any plans in case either a ferry, or a larger ship or even some bad person sinks in that very narrow passageway? Looks like a single point of failure to me..............

Would be a bit embarrassing to have everyone bottled up next to HMS Victory in an emergency................

Force projection is great but how often do you need to fight the Falklands War or similar? It was 35 years ago for heavens sake.

Your Navy is bleeding to death day by day, every day from cuts and under-investment to the stage when the Iranians can do what the hell they like because you only have a single warship in the Gulf. Oh, yes - you're sending another so you'll have 2 there for 3 weeks....

The carriers are a straight vanity project - it'll be years before they can embark a serious number of UK F-35's (if they survive the forthcoming round of cuts)

Meanwhile the CAA has told MoD to go back to the drawing board - again - with its proposals to expand the airspace around Holbeach and Donna Nook to accommodate F-35 weapons training. The new airspace was supposed to be in place this month. It now looks like they won't get a CAA decision on the airspace till spring 2021.

I think you'll find looking back that almost everyone who is "anti-carrier" on here is very PRO RN - - the money is being spent on the wrong ships - they could have had another Astute, another T45 and some minesweepers and a bucket load of change for the cash spent on the QE - and manned them as well

Ahh but quantity has it's.........

PG - thank you - I couldn't have put my view better........

"So you really think the RN is better served adding further resilience to capabilities it already has,"

Absolutely - when EVERYONE agrees it is stretched to breaking point to fulfill those tasks more of the same has to be the first priority so it can do the jobs that have been loaded onto the force

you don't add another set of complex and expensive tasks to their burden and stretch the current force even further...........

I have no idea what your background is, but think this may not be subject expertise. This is like saying to a football team, as long as you have a good midfield, we won't bother with goal keepers or strikers. Two of the RN's primary tasks are anti submarine warfare and support of expeditionary activities. Trying to do that successfully without aircover is madness. Please refer to my previous note, imagine trying to fight the falklands without SHAR! That does not mean we expect to fight the Falklands again, it means we do not know what we will need to fight. Carriers provide flexibility to the RN to react what the UK requires. An extra T45 and Astute does no such thing.

Can you please provide evidence that everyone knows the RN is stretched to breaking point? Internet gossip does not count as evidence. The RN is going through transformation to rebuild a capability it should never have lost. There are lots of things going to restructure operations to support the new ask and operating rythm. Alongside significant upgrades to the FF and DD fleets this has taken a fair bit of planning, But right now there are now 7 RN / RFA units in the gulf, with two more heading eastwards. A Westlant deployment is about to start. Further, some research will reveal significant NATO activity with multiple units during 2019. Aside from the USN, which other navies can undertake that level of activitity?

I have no idea what your objective is. The RN is doing just fine. CEPP is a capability that is on track on the UK shoud be proud of. There are no massively cheaper options to provide the needed capability. (CVS sized carries will neither save enough money or meet the ask) Sadly for those that see Fast Air as a land based entity, those days are over. The watchword is flexbility. Typhoons that do AD and Strike, F35s that do land and sea, strike, EW and AD. If you join the RAF, you may find yourself at sea!

Talking of which, when is the next ASW exercise (such as Deep Blue (in 2014 - nine Merlin HM2 aboard HMS Illustrious plus another aboard Westminster) or Deep Blue II (in 2016 - with Ocean and a mixed group of aircraft)?

I find it annoying that the website does not press home the point that ASW is a carrier role - task group ASW means constantly having helicopters airborne, which means you need a big deck. ASW might be needed for say an LPD, or Crisis Response Shipping. Sadly there was no other HVA acting as the unit to be protected in those exercises. However, a pair of 2087/Merlin equipped Type 23s provided ASW for an American LHD during Trident Juncture last year, the same time as WESTLANT 19 and Saif Sareea III with Oman, with routine tasks continuing in the background.

The RN will be deploying a carrier based task group, instead of one centred around amphibious forces. The two can and do exist together. If all the ships committed to exercises in Norway and Oman were together, it starts to look like a capable task group. One that could do with carrier based ASW and air defence.

The UK has committed a carrier to the NATO response force. We have also agreed to provide ASW capabilities. In December last year, the Human Security Centre said:

The UK’s Royal Navy should take the lead in any early effort to counter offensive Russian submarine operations via a multi-national task group centred upon one of the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

The full report is here.

The fact that we were able to reinforce our presence in the Gulf in fairly short time should say something (like being able to deploy in response to other crises elsewhere), however building an extra Type 45 or two is not going to be practical, neither will building more SSNs as were are now committed to building news SSBNs with those construction facilities.

The idea that the Stena Impero was seized by the Iranians due to the carrier meaning the Gulf was not full of RN frigates/destroyers is just plain dumb. The tanker only gave the RN an hour's notice of a Strait of Hormuz transit.