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!)

Under specced
 

I can remember a RN nav friend of mine going off to give the (then) brand new Ocean the once over. He came back unimpressed by a number of aspects, especially the bow thruster. Said it was like they'd fitted the smallest one available, pinched from a sun seeker yatch; it had very little effect on where the bow was pointing...

Didn't it get severely dinged when launched?

Yes and yes. Fore-poppet collapsed during launch, allowing forefoot to slam onto the berth and opening minor bow compartment to the sea (well, river). Fixed when docked some months later.

OK I give up - what is a 'fore poppet' and a 'fore-foot?

That was likely referring to the RCOH for each ship. Half (5) of the Nimitz class ships have already completed, or are currently in, their major mid life refit. This is known as Refueling and Complex Overhaul- RCOH. This is a major 3-4 year period where the reactors are refueled and the ships are majorly stripped out and refitted. This is the only reactor refueling in the projected 50 year life of the ships. There was some talk of skipping the RCOH for the George Washington and retiring her early as a cost saving move, but that was averted and she is next in the que and the other 4 will follow. Regular lesser yard periods are built into the deployment cycles for each ship. Massively complex and expensive undertakings to keep these capable and impressive ships in top shape and deployable.

Fore poppet: the temporary structure (wooden prop usually) that supports the forefoot during the slide down the slipway.


Forefoot: The bottom bit of the bow where it is curving round to join the keel/bottom.


N

At least when the USN put a carrier force to sea, they don't include a tug!

Thanks Bengo!! I must get to more launchings!!

I served on Ocean and she was a good ship, I really thought. Far, far better designed than Invincible (which in retrospective was bloody horrible in just about all aspects to my own selfish concern).
Ocean has a Big Hangar, aircraft lifts that were reliable and didn't collapse, wider flight deck, better access to the same deck, larger wider passageways, multiple compartments meaning lots of space for more people.
Better people, less big shouty egos, a far better ships company all around.
Downside, some pretty thuggish embarked Royal Marines one has to witness to believe actually allowed to serve, but they are what they are. Piss poor aircraft refuel system to the flight deck which had serious knock on effects at the time. Limited build quality in some areas, good in others.
Bigger deck and space generally makes for happier people. HS.

Almost as if when LPH was being tendered, the MoD (and the tenderers) went to the trouble of asking folk what could be improved from the CVS (then been in-service for around 10 years) and having got a list, implemented as much of it as could be afforded.

I am thinking that Ocean was always envisaged to have an RM contingent embarked whereas Invincible class never really was, and also that Ocean was always condidered to have a logistics role whereas (again) Invincible classes never were. Invincible really designed to provide sub-hunter support capability Vs Ocean designed more as a platform to support expeditionary warfare............

Just my 2 pennyworth...........

Arc