LONDON - The British government will proceed with its 3.9 billion pound ($7.6 billion) aircraft carrier program and has told the companies involved that they are poised to make an announcement.
Paul Lester, the VT Group chief executive, said they had been told by the Ministry of Defence that approval for production was imminent. "We asked what imminent meant and they said a matter of weeks."
An MoD spokesman confirmed an announcement was expected imminently.
The future of the carrier program for the Royal Navy has been in doubt for months as the Ministry of Defence has battled to balance its books in the face of a potential budget overspend during the next few years.
One option under consideration had been to slip the carrier start date by a year or more. Lester, who was speaking to reporters after announcing company results for the year, said the build program looked as though it would proceed on schedule.
"We offered to reprofile the spend rate but I don't think that's going to happen now. … They want to make the timescale and can't afford any slippage," he said.
The carrier program appears to have emerged from the MoD's planning round for 2008 unscathed said Lester.
Although much support for the carrier program had slipped away within the MoD over the last 12 months, the Navy retained the political backing of an already unpopular government anxious to avoid large-scale job losses in key constituencies.
Lester emphasized the carrier program's importance to employment, saying the go-ahead decision would "secure 10,000 jobs in the maritime industry and 1,000 jobs at Babcock and in the northeast."
The current schedule is to have the first of the carriers in service in 2014 and the second in 2016. The program will see the warships built by an alliance of BAE Systems, Babcock International, Thales, the VT Group and the MoD.
The warships will be built in modules at yards around Britain and floated up to the Babcock yard at Rosyth in Scotland for final assembly. At 65,000 tons, they will be the largest warships ever built in Britain.
The VT boss said the MoD had already committed 170 million pounds to purchase long-lead items to protect the in-service date. A government signal that the program was proceeding will trigger completion of a proposed joint venture between VT and BAE, merging their surface shipyards in England and Scotland.
Lester said it would take about four or five weeks to complete the merger, following which the contract to build the two warships would be signed with the joint venture and a subcontract issued to the alliance.
In a statement, BAE said it "would welcome the decision by the MoD with regards to progressing the carrier programme. Our understanding is that this decision could be imminent. Upon receiving written confirmation from the MoD, BAE Systems will finalise due diligence and the details of the joint venture with VT in order for it to go ahead."
A 3 billion pound contract for a military flying training program, which VT and its partner Lockheed Martin have been negotiating with the MoD, is also expected to be signed imminently, he said.
VT announced revenues climbed 20 percent last year to 1.2 billion pounds. Profit before tax was up 33 percent to 71.3 million pounds.
Finally, Britain will once again have true carriers. Too bad they won't have catapults and an angled deck, and no I don't believe this "modifications" can be carried out easily.
Mobile airpower
"The enemy dies relaxed," observed a Lockheed Martin manager.
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Finally, Britain will once again have true carriers. Too bad they won't have catapults and an angled deck, and no I don't believe this "modifications" can be carried out easily.
They will have an angled deck, they are designed as catapult/arrestor carriers but fitted as STOVL carriers. The main issue would be steam generation, which could be solved with electromagnetic catapults.
See, angled deck
Plenty of angle there me thinks
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Why would brittain want to fit them with F-35B's when they can have F-35C's it does not make sense to me.
Easier to forward deploy from the carrier, can operate in rougher sea's, compatible with harriers, no single point of failure to stop flight ops, more aircraft for a given deck area, can operate on a shorter airstrip/no airstrip, less training costs.
"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."
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Easier to forward deploy from the carrier, can operate in rougher sea's,
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May 15 2008, 6:43 AM
Thats remains to be seen.
CVF requierements for rough sea operation are below that of CDG for reason of cost and F-35 isn't too hot in this dpt either.
You'd better inform yourself on the subject before posting stuff like this.
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This message has been edited by sampaix on May 15, 2008 12:45 PM
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"Why would brittain want to fit them with F-35B's when they can have F-35C's it does not make sense to me."
British doctrine tends to emphasize their task groups doing Air Cover/CAS with ground/amphibious forces rather than naval air superiority like in the United States.
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Quote:are there any plans for aew aircraft. i don't think an e2 hawkeye can take off from a ski jump.
There are no concrete plans at the moment. However, the MOD have a project to replace the existing Sea King Mk 7s at some point in the future. At present the projects planning assumptions is to install Cerberus/Searchwater 2000 into Merlin helicopters. However, the IPT is looking at alternative options, including using UAVs or putting the Cerberus/SW2K into Ospreys in order to provide a better performaing platform.
Personally, I really like the idea of buying a dozen Ospreys to perform AEW as they have a decent flight envelope, will operate from thre RN's STOVL carriers without any reconfiguration and they fold well for storage.
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Personally, I really like the idea of buying a dozen Ospreys to perform AEW as they have a decent flight envelope, will operate from thre RN's STOVL carriers without any reconfiguration and they fold well for storage.
Yep, and some could also be procured for carrier on board delivery or dual rolled for it too! The only issue I see with it is that they tend to drop out of the sky, not too good at the price those AEW systems are! It will be interesting to see what kind of radar system they use in the case they choose Osprey's, seeing as they could have some kind of E-2 derivative, a searchwater system derivative or something new (perhaps joint procured for the RN and USMC) using an streamlined AESA on the aircraft body. The future US AWACS is potentially going to be able to perform air and ground control which would (if done on Osprey too), would give a JSTARS type capability from the carriers!
"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."
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We wouldn't because it wouldn't be the E-2 radar, it would be a derivative as I stated
The actual antenna would likely be a custom one for the aircraft, but the systems inside the aircraft could be derived from an existing system such as E-2, E-3 or Searchwater and some things perhaps from ASTOR, all depends on who uses it (Royal Navy only or UCMC too).
The antenna could be mounted in pods such as this (ASTOR):
or with an AESA on each side
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MASC is the ignored child of the CVF, which I find a great concern. The project keeps being put back with studies being completed but no real progress made. Last I heard it doesn't even have it's own IPT (it's part of the overall CVF team) making it very easy for the funding to be moved away. Current time scale is I believe for the SeaKings to push on to 2022!
The SeaKing/SW2000 is a great combination, and perfect for covering Amphibious ops, which is all the RN is really now capable of. But the jump to CVF/F-35 needs far more the SeaKings can offer. If the best we have is the a SW2000 equipped platform we're at a major disadvantage.
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Planar AESA arrays on each side of the plane and separate radars(different bands but higher power output) on nose and tail of the plane for 360 degrees coverage. Possible i think; if chosen that is. Might cost yer.
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