There was no requirement, of any sort, for catapults in the signed contract.

'fitted for but not with' was something invented by a politician after the event.

XP and Vista might have some advantages. Apart from anything else, neither would mysteriously download an update and announce that it will shut down and restart in 5 minutes. That might seriously bugger up our exit from whichever harbour its in at the moment.

But I just had another though. YES, ANOTHER thought - I had one in 1989. Once we liberate the ship, what will we do with it? Just been watching 007 and we might want to consider the highest bidder.

That's nothing. Do you realise that the EU is now trying to impose laws limiting the max g available to fighter aircraft in case the pilot blacks out? They also want to increase the minimum width of supermarket parking spaces so that they can accommodate German cars. They are working on legislation to force schools to teach German. They have already agreed new regulations to ban Gloucester Old Spots because their bacon contains too much flavour.

But, on the brighter side, it is wonderful that Scottish unions will now dictate UK Defence Policy. Excellent!

Neither will Windows 7/8/10 if you configure them that way. Even commercial Enterprise configurations point the update system to an internal update service (rather than the microsoft one) so that the company has full control over which updates are rolled out and when. That's how particular Windows lockdown configurations can be certified for use at essentially all national security levels.

PDR

I don't think any politician invented this at all - do you have a cite for that?.

I'm not familiar with the detailed QEC contract terms, but "fitted for but not with" has been a fairly common concept in UK and US military equipment for decades. In my time on the Harrier programme well had this concept for fitments like TIALD, the "big" (mk107) engine and numerous pieces of assorted avionics. The MOD only bought 40 mk107 engines, and a core part of the GR9/9A upgrade programme ensured that every airframe was fitted for the big engine even though at any given time only 20-25 aircraft would actually have one installed (making them GR9As rather than GR9s). If the big engine was taken out of an aeroplane and the small one installed it became a GR9 again.

It would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that the design configuration of the QECs explicitly made provision for fitting cats and/or ski-jumps at some later date simply because it would have been sensible to do so, in the same way HMS Ocean's design allowed for the possibility being re-roled as a Harrier platform.

PDR

What? Windows lockdown? Enterprise configurations? Coff, I hope you get all this. I thought this was going to be a simple smash and grab and then sell them to the highest bidding scrap merchants. No one mentioned Windows lockdown.

If we configure our firewall outreach access protocols properly, could this still work?

....and when the locked down version of Win10 gets hacked, and the boat disappears off to a small unfriendly port in the Eastern Med, will it be missed? :E

Imagegear

It depends on if it's running Google Earth as well..

Still, with running Windows you could log in remotely from your F-35 and control the ship, thus alleviating the need to clutter the place up with fisheads.

In April 2003 the official line was that adding catapults/arrestor gear was a nil cost upgrade, if required. It only takes one senior man to say it, followed by dirty looks at the horrified faces in the audience, to make it policy!

In early 1997, the in-house (Boscombe) prototype mission system for an RN helicopter was built around the forthcoming Windows 98. The famous logo appeared when initialised. Licensing problems meant contracting bespoke software to industry, which was years behind as they weren't a patch (!) on Boscombe.

The words strategic and UK do not co exist. Why wings about the detail of carriers no steel means no no ships no subs no aircraft ( engines gear etc) no tanks no guns no swords no spears, a new bronze age awaits us altho the French can still provide a nuclear deterrent as they wont want the fallout from any attack on southern England.

Don't worry Courtney ... Once we secure the Bridge, I have a USB Flashdrive that is capable of overriding most installed OS's. So far it's worked on a Vauxhall Corsa, Costa Vending Machines and Mrs Coff's Neff oven ... So I don't see a problem with a part build RN Carrier :ok:

I've also got a large tarpaulin ... So we can cover it when we 'park' it (sorry I'm not fully conversant with technical ship driving talk) on the Cuckmere here in the deep South of England ... there is also a rather good pub for a post Op celebration :ok:

Good call on the need for "Heaters" ... as it does get a bit nippy up north :}

I thought we might 'invoice' T1stSL for the 'Recovery' rather than sell for scrap ?

Sorry Tuc for interrupting your serious contribution ;)

It's got the makings of a good film, stealing a carrier back out from under the noses of the Jocks, the trouble is knowing Hollywood they would ruin it by probably swooping the carrier for some old destroyer, the Clyde for some river in China, possibly like the Yangtze, and then make her run the gauntlet of Chinese takeaways in the dark...

How very nice of Rosyth to offer to store the carriers for us, should save a packet on mothballing fees. Shame that their storage might mean that the 26's might have to be built 'dahn sarf' due to lack of room at Rosyth.

Nothing to do with the pilot, its about passing the emissions test.

We will not get the F35s to fly from them until about 2050 (sorry I'm probably being a bit optimistic there), so there is no rush to get the carriers out. We'll save a fortune in fuel costs simply by leaving them where they are for a few decades. Then the only problem will be updating to Windows 2050.

Does taking the Carriers Hostage mean that the GMB is also taking on responsibility for the nuclear Subs moored at Rosyth?

Fixed it for you... "Nothing to do with the max Gz, its about the pilot passing the emissions test".

My Grandad was a miner called Herbert. What's your point?

Did he borrow Bob's torque wrench?

PDR

OK,

Infil

Suggest, we borrow a Chinook and stealthily (ha) approach direct to ship at 03:00 hrs on Sunday using borrowed NVGs. The skeleton crew of fishheads will all be drunk and asleep...