[P44]

Navy surrenders one new aircraft carrier in budget battle

The Royal Navy has agreed to sacrifice one of its two new aircraft carriers to save about £8.2 billion from the defence budget.

The admirals, who have battled for a decade to secure the two new 65,000-ton carriers, have been forced to back down because of the soaring cost of the American-produced Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft due to fly off them.

The move is a blow to the navy’s prestige and has come on the heels of Gordon Brown’s announcement last month that he was axing one of the navy’s four Trident nuclear deterrent submarines.

It is too late for the navy to renege on contracts to build the two carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, due to go into service in 2016, and the Prince of Wales, due to follow in 2018. Although the second carrier will be built, it will be used as an amphibious commando ship, with only helicopters on board instead of JSF aircraft.

The move will leave the navy without a carrier when the Queen Elizabeth goes into refit, leaving open the possibility that it might have to borrow one from the French navy. In a meeting with Brown last year, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had suggested that refits of French and British aircraft carriers should be co-ordinated.

The decision to have only one new aircraft carrier will cut the number of JSFs to be flown by RAF squadrons from 138 to about 50, saving £7.6 billion. At current prices, the aircraft will cost close to £90m each, but this could rise to more than £100m.

Using the Prince of Wales as a commando ship will save a further £600m, the amount that would have been needed to replace the amphibious landing ship Ocean, which is due to go out of service in 2018.

The decision to cut the number of JSF aircraft has been agreed by senior navy and air force commanders in discussions preparing for the strategic defence review.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to conducting a strategic defence review after the general election, which must be held by the late spring.

A senior Royal Navy officer said: “We always knew that the real cost of the carrier project is the JSF fleet to go on them. It would cost us at least £12 billion if we bought all the aircraft we originally asked for. We are waking up to the fact that all those planes are unaffordable. More than half of the £5 billion contracts to build the two new carriers have been contracted, so it is too late to get out of building the ships. This way at least we are covered when Ocean goes out of service.”

Since both aircraft carriers will still be built, there are unlikely to be job losses at the Rosyth ship yards, close to Brown’s constituency. The JSF aircraft are being built in Fort Worth, Texas, with the involvement of BAE Systems.

The RAF, which had been due to replace its Tornado aircraft with the JSF, will now equip all its frontline squadrons with Eurofighter aircraft instead.

The Conservatives said any decision to axe a carrier would be “absolutely unacceptable” and typical of the government’s “chaotic, inconsistent and incompetent defence procurement policy”.

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said the move exposed the government’s claim that it wanted a completely independent strategic defence review. “The government is saying it is fully committed to the carriers while at the same time forcing them to be cut,” he said.

“It is confusing for the navy, it is confusing for industry and it is completely inconsistent with the whole concept of running an independent defence review.”

The Ministry of Defence said Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, remained 100% committed to the carriers but “financial circumstances mean some difficult decisions will have to be taken to prioritise our forces’ efforts in Afghanistan”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 888962.ece

[Miguel]

o fim da RN

[Get_It]

Para o inglês ver. Não é assim que costumam dizer? É exactamente para isso que serve essa decisão e notícia. A única novidade, que é antiga, é a diminuição no número de F-35 a comprar. Ora vejamos, os contratos foram assinados e a construção já começou, e decisão será de utilizar o Prince of Wales como um navio de comando anfíbio. Nenhuma novidade aqui, o projecto para os porta-aviões britânicos já contava com esta dupla capacidade e o Prince of Wales terá na mesma capacidade para no futuro operar aeronaves se for preciso. Talvez tenham de ser instalados equipamentos para esse fim, mas quanto ao navio em si esse já não terá de ser modificado. A notícia aqui é sobre que em vez de terem o número necessário de caças para criar duas air wings para os porta-aviões terão apenas uma air wing para o Queen Elizabeth.

Cumprimentos,

[Miguel]

Todos os Estados Europeus estao a cortar na defesa.

Estou curioso por ver quais vao ser os cortes dos nossos vizinhos

Considerando que Espanha é o pais que sofre mais da crise na zona euro! juntamente com Irlanda e Reino Unido.

[cromwell]

Todos os Estados Europeus estao a cortar na defesa.

Estou curioso por ver quais vao ser os cortes dos nossos vizinhos  

Considerando que Espanha é o pais que sofre mais da crise na zona euro! juntamente com Irlanda e Reino Unido.

Cortes na defesa em Espanha?

Não me parece!

Aliás, o investimento na defesa é gigantesco, e o novo porta-aviões é uma certeza disso.

Quando o novo porta-aviões e os submarinos S-80 estiverem ao serviço, a armada espanhola será a mais poderosa da Europa, o que vai ser um grande perigo à soberania das nossas águas.

[Atuga]

boa tarde
ver site http://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/index.html
para melhor enquadramento da coisa
cumps.

[tsahal]

Cromwell, tens a certeza que a armada espanhola será a mais poderosa da Europa quando tiver os navios referidos por ti??

Mais poderosa do que a França que contará com 1 aircraft carrier e quem sabe mais 1 ou 2, 3 BPCs, 10 FREMMs, 2 HORIZON, n sei quantas fragatas La Fayette, 6 SNA Barracuda, 4 SNLE-NG? Ja nem refiro os SNA ainda em serviço.

Tem em conta tb à Italia e a Royal Navy depois sim pode vir a Espanha ou até a Alemanha, esta última que peca por não ter um LHD de resto com os submarinos U212A, as fragatas F125 e corvetas K130 será superior a Espanha q tem navios F100 mt bonitos por fora e por dentro mas são mt limitados quando comparados com outros como as F125, Horizon, T45 e FREMM.

A confirmar o artigo do Times, a RN ter um aircraft carrier e um LHD e não dois aircraft carrier. No entanto, o wing de JSFs poderá operar em ambos navios visto que quando um está a navegar, o outro está em manutenção na base naval ou seja podem perfeitamente ter dois aircraft carrier e não transformar um em LHD.

[pchunter]

Isto da crise toca a todos, mas na Europa a RN vai continuar a ser dona e senhora. Porque eles sempre souberam a importância do domínio do mar, ao contrario de um pais que eu cá sei.

[dannymu]

Todos os Estados Europeus estao a cortar na defesa.

Estou curioso por ver quais vao ser os cortes dos nossos vizinhos

[Instrutor]

Todos os Estados Europeus estao a cortar na defesa.

Estou curioso por ver quais vao ser os cortes dos nossos vizinhos

Considerando que Espanha é o pais que sofre mais da crise na zona euro! juntamente com Irlanda e Reino Unido.

- Cancelamento dos Misseis TOMAHAWK;
http://www.areamilitar.net/noticias/not ... ?NrNot=831

E isto é somente o princípio.

[old]

España destina una miseria a defensa,asi que como recorten mas no se donde vamos a parar.
Tampoco se cual es la amenaza para la soberania Portugal . Es ridiculo


España suele ser muy realista a la hora de realizar sus pedidos y afortunadamente la construccion naval proporciona puestos de trabajo, dudo que se cancelen pedidos.

Los TLAM vienen de fuera, es logico que se aplaze o anule su compra con la actual crisis.

De momento esta pendiente la 6ª F100 y los 2 S80 adicionales que ya veremos que pasa.

Y no, España no es la Marina mas poderosa de Europa. En ciertos aspectos como capacidad anfibia o AA esta quiza en primer o segundo puesto, pero globalmente no.

France
UK
Italia /España
Alemania
Holanda/Noruega

resto de paises

[P44]

Royal Navy Surrenders One New Aircraft Carrier In Budget Battle (excerpt)
   
   
(Source: The Sunday Times; published Oct. 25, 2009)
 
 
   
   The Royal Navy has agreed to sacrifice one of its two new aircraft carriers to save about £8.2 billion from the defence budget.

The admirals, who have battled for a decade to secure the two new 65,000-ton carriers, have been forced to back down because of the soaring cost of the American-produced Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft due to fly off them.

The move is a blow to the navy’s prestige and has come on the heels of Gordon Brown’s announcement last month that he was axing one of the navy’s four Trident nuclear deterrent submarines.

It is too late for the navy to renege on contracts to build the two carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, due to go into service in 2016, and the Prince of Wales, due to follow in 2018. Although the second carrier will be built, it will be used as an amphibious commando ship, with only helicopters on board instead of JSF aircraft.

The move will leave the navy without a carrier when the Queen Elizabeth goes into refit, leaving open the possibility that it might have to borrow one from the French navy. In a meeting with Brown last year, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had suggested that refits of French and British aircraft carriers should be co-ordinated.

The decision to have only one new aircraft carrier will cut the number of JSFs to be flown by RAF squadrons from 138 to about 50, saving £7.6 billion. At current prices, the aircraft will cost close to £90m each, but this could rise to more than £100m.

Using the Prince of Wales as a commando ship will save a further £600m, the amount that would have been needed to replace the amphibious landing ship Ocean, which is due to go out of service in 2018. (end of excerpt)


Click here for the full story, on the Sunday Times website.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 888962.ece


Click here for a similar story in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009 ... er-trident

-ends-

[old]

Mas que la decision de no construir uno de sus Portaaviones  lo que mas me  preocupa es la viabilidad de la version Vtol del F35. Al final sera un avion carisimo .

A saber cuantos millones de € llegara a costar y cuantas unidades podran permitirse paises sin las aspiraciones de los grandes

[P44]

Old:

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articl ... eport.html

[Get_It]

Se a Espanha, Itália e o Reino Unido tivessem colaborado num caça VTOL para substituir o Harrier tinham conseguido tirar uma grande parte do mercado internacional ao F-35.
Já agora, só eu que não estou atento às notícias ou existe mesmo pouca informação acerca dos planos da Espanha para substituir os seus Harriers?

Cumprimentos,