Channel 4 now Warship - HMS Ocean
 

Anyone glued to Channel 4 right now, for Warship series and the adventures of Ocean?

Cheers

I thought it was pretty good and the trail for the following episode makes it look like it'll only get better.

A decent attempt at the RN recovering their image after the embarrassment that was Royal Navy School.

Where was Rod Stewart??

I was surprised how large the deck area was and the number of aircraft that were being operated. Pity there were no jets.................

Sad that she is up for sale next year...................

Arc

Arc,
Compared to the CVS she was a luxury to operate from - a much larger deckspace to land on (and no ski jump reducing the number of spots) with RW Ops prioritised and some decently sized planning spaces. Also, you could walk down a corridor without banging your head, and the Wardroom and Quarterdeck were on the same deck (IIRC), unlike the CVS where you had to carry your beer up/down ladder chains. Not the fastest, nor most reliable ship though and I'm not sure how battle-worthy it is compared to the Cold War CVS....Shame the UK can't stay fully committed to the LitM role and purchase a like for like replacement rather than, dreamily, "double hatting" the QEC. Guess it's as much about harvesting her crew as money as there does seem to be a bit of a shortage of Matelots at the moment.

Sad for whichever schmuck buys her - couldn't even make it out of the English Channel without both engines breaking down.

Found the comment of the 17-year old Apprentice Engineer amusing: "Well it is 20 years old, what do you expect?" I guess 20 years is more than a lifetime for a 17-year old.

Very good, but as I remember the time when we had a couple of what were then called Commando Carriers (Bulwark and Albion) and a couple of "proper" carriers with Phantoms, Buccs etc (Vic and Ark Royal) it made me realise how far down the pecking order we have slid among the world's navies.

Reference the 17 y/o girl and her comment about not being allowed to go to war, I once met a matelot who had been 17 at the time the Falklands thing blew up and his ship, already at sea, was diverted to the South Atlantic. They were going to put him ashore at Gib when they called on to re-victual etc, but he pleaded to stay with the ship and ended up as probably the youngest sailor to be awarded The South Atlantic Medal.

TTN

Totally agree with you regarding your comments about sliding down the pecking order. Where there is a pecking order there is also Chicken sh!t........

Total lack of understanding about the issues of 'Sea Power' and also 'Air Power' within the political sphere I'm afraid.

Arc

Worked with HMS Ocean from above during a minor (in terms of reporting) conflict adjacent to the very south east North Atlantic. Respect and condolences to all that crewed her.

Possible sale on the cards to Brazil.

HMS Ocean could be sold to Brazil for £80million | Plymouth Herald

Interested to see the V-22 operating off HMS Ocean on last night's episode,

Is that a common occurrence whilst operating with the US task force? The XO described it as a useful capability to have due to its range and speed, but it's only useful if you have access to it....

Just looking at it frightens the cr^p out of me!

Funnily enough one of the first (probably first time) MV-22B Osprey embarked / landed on ours was the last time Ark was off the Virginia coast in that 2010 documentary on the Ark.

Cheers

Quite a good prog, re. the above noticed that the V-22 landed right on the stern - is that because of reduced clearance next to the superstructure?

A few comments that the Eisenhower looked a bit shabby - that certainly seemed to be the case although the flightdeck looked far more interesting :-)

I will give the crew of the Ike a pass. She has been deployed for a long time on this cruise now and been run quite hard. 40+ years old and on the forefront of war on ISIS, a bit of running rust would be expected. Agree a busy flight deck always looks purposeful.

As for Brazil they seem to really want to remain a flat deck operator. But wonder if a new build of one of several designs coming on line recently would be better long run. Tired carriers may be all they have been able to afford.

Agree on comments ref Ike - don't forget that many USN carriers are old ladies now - Nimitz is pushing 40 too, and they've got to spend a lot of time keeping them going. Talking to my USN friends and they are candid that keeping the fleet at sea is a major challenge due to age and wider US budgetary issues - I was told that currently 5 of the fleet are long term of profile due to refit / other issues.

ORAC

Good article - on the basis of that are you saying that old tired flat tops are all that Brazil can afford ??

Based on that article (which was interesting) I'd be surprised if they could buy anything at all, mind you if you are in the sh!t up to your neck that deeply another £80M is lost in the shouting.

I do feel though that eventually the Brazillian economy will rebound as the commodities they have are what the world wants.... (oil, timber, soya etc)

I assume they will operate rotary only as they also have no ship based fixed wing capability. I am sure that if BAE started building a cheaper Harrier capability many of these countries would buy it for non CAT & TRAP style operations off of these flat tops........ maybe a gap in the market there.

Arc

TTN, not to mention Eagle and Hermes.

Fair-do's - forgetting how old these are getting and how many miles they are covering (sometimes in the opposite direction to what the CiC wants!)