HMS Queen Elizabeth
Discussion
b0rk said:
MartG said:
By comparison an E-2D Hawkeye flying at altitude can detect low flying targets up to 300 miles away
Surely if your starting from scratch in terms of AEW capability it would be more logical to develop a ISR UAV that could be either carrier lunched or lunched from the rear pad of a type 45. Some form of networked blimp seems the most logical to me in providing beyond horizon capability. hidetheelephants said:
I wonder how long it will take for a solar-powered AEW drone/blimp to appear; one that can loiter at very high altitude could remain above weather and possibly stay aloft for days at a time. I imagine the data link would be as challenging as creating the airframe.
Powering a useful radar on such a platform would be pretty tricky as well. Modern and future radar systems are massive power hogs and gathering that power from a solar system would be challenging, especially if your enemy decides to act at night. A twin prop STOL Drone would be ideal but any unique solution would come with an impressive R+D bill. Buy some OV-10 Broncos off ebay, rip out the pilot seats and install some remote control servos and a camera, bolt a couple of arrays to the wings and you are golden. Yours for £50 billion inc BAE tax.
hidetheelephants said:
I wonder how long it will take for a solar-powered AEW drone/blimp to appear; one that can loiter at very high altitude could remain above weather and possibly stay aloft for days at a time. I imagine the data link would be as challenging as creating the airframe.
Airframes already exist and have for a long while;http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/219141.s...
As pointed out though the power and weight requirements for a working AEW solution still are a mile off.
I anticipate that the Navy will at some point put the AEW burden on the Merlins but I'm not sure how much resourcing has been pushed in that direction as yet, it should be a reasonably easy job to switch from Seakings to Merlins at least in my layman's eyes.
IanMorewood said:
hidetheelephants said:
I wonder how long it will take for a solar-powered AEW drone/blimp to appear; one that can loiter at very high altitude could remain above weather and possibly stay aloft for days at a time. I imagine the data link would be as challenging as creating the airframe.
Airframes already exist and have for a long while;http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/219141.s...
As pointed out though the power and weight requirements for a working AEW solution still are a mile off.
I anticipate that the Navy will at some point put the AEW burden on the Merlins but I'm not sure how much resourcing has been pushed in that direction as yet, it should be a reasonably easy job to switch from Seakings to Merlins at least in my layman's eyes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-surveillanc...
Tethered aerostats are already used as sensor platforms, both on land and from ships. One disadvantage is that to place one up-threat, you're either limited to not far away from the main fleet itself or you're putting the ship its tethered to in a very exposed position. Whereas normal aircraft AEW can position themselves tens/hundreds of km up-threat of the rest of the fleet.
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
Brilliant.Thanks G15 for bringing a lighter hearted side to this discussion.
Re the AEW Merlins service ceiling it will be classified as will the range of the radar etc, but your looking at a ceiling high enough to give the radar a range in excess of 150km tying that up with a type 45 and hopefully a few fighters she should be well equiped to deal with most airbourne threats unless she is swarmed by Backfires launching sea skimmers. The major threat to Lizzy and Big Ears will come from under the sea especially as we scrapped much of our maritime patrol airfleet.
Re the AEW Merlins service ceiling it will be classified as will the range of the radar etc, but your looking at a ceiling high enough to give the radar a range in excess of 150km tying that up with a type 45 and hopefully a few fighters she should be well equiped to deal with most airbourne threats unless she is swarmed by Backfires launching sea skimmers. The major threat to Lizzy and Big Ears will come from under the sea especially as we scrapped much of our maritime patrol airfleet.
MiniMan64 said:
Isn't it going to be obsolete in a decade or so anyway, surely the future is smaller floating runways for drones?
Unlikely in the next decade. The F35B will be just another weapon system, of which she'll have plenty....it's a platform to project power (almost) at will, anywhere in the world and at anytime. That could be Royal Marines, Chinooks, Apaches,Wildcats etc etc or if purely maritime ops, a battle staff co-ordinating surface assets, SSNs, C4ISR, ASW and AEW Merlins to name a few..MiniMan64 said:
Isn't it going to be obsolete in a decade or so anyway, surely the future is smaller floating runways for drones?
Why smaller? Modern drones are quickly approaching the size of full jets. The taranis is the size of a hawk and that's just a demo model with no room for a weapons bay.doogz said:
MiniMan64 said:
Isn't it going to be obsolete in a decade or so anyway, surely the future is smaller floating runways for drones?
You think F35 will have been replaced in a decade? I'll be surprised if it's properly in service by then!Time will tell on that matter.
I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that a current projected OSD of 2048 has been muted for F-35B.....which will mean my own OSD is very likely to be before the F-35
Godalmighty83 said:
Why smaller? Modern drones are quickly approaching the size of full jets. The taranis is the size of a hawk and that's just a demo model with no room for a weapons bay.
A Reaper drone has a wingspan roughly twice that of the f35 so flight deck space is going to be tight if the future plans are that QE and PoW could be used to launch multiple drone raids. That said I don't know if the deck would be long enough for fully armed drones to operate safely from anyway.I am told that there are 3 F35's in the country, for their display (cant remember but think it was fairford...) they will run all 3 of them up at the end of the runway, and (this is how it was put to me!) the "healthiest" of the three will take off and the other two will taxi to the hard-stand so we can see close-up where our tax-millions have been spent.
they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
Mrtee said:
I am told that there are 3 F35's in the country, for their display (cant remember but think it was fairford...) they will run all 3 of them up at the end of the runway, and (this is how it was put to me!) the "healthiest" of the three will take off and the other two will taxi to the hard-stand so we can see close-up where our tax-millions have been spent.
they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
If I lived within sight of Fairford I'd be checking my house insurance right now.they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
Mrtee said:
I am told that there are 3 F35's in the country, for their display (cant remember but think it was fairford...) they will run all 3 of them up at the end of the runway, and (this is how it was put to me!) the "healthiest" of the three will take off and the other two will taxi to the hard-stand so we can see close-up where our tax-millions have been spent.
they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
Hmmmmm......they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
The plan was for 4 to come over (3 x USMC & 1 x RAF) with tanker and C130 support a/c.
The plan was certainley for the solo display a/c to operate away from Fairford, as it was due at Farnborough tomorrow for it's validation display. The plan was for them to operate from Fairford direct to Farnborough and back to Fairford with no landings at Farnborough.
However.......
As of yesterday, as far as can be assertained, they were still on the ground at PAX in the USA waiting for flight clearance.
aeropilot said:
Mrtee said:
I am told that there are 3 F35's in the country, for their display (cant remember but think it was fairford...) they will run all 3 of them up at the end of the runway, and (this is how it was put to me!) the "healthiest" of the three will take off and the other two will taxi to the hard-stand so we can see close-up where our tax-millions have been spent.
they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
Hmmmmm......they are allowed to fly at Fairford..... I was told "not out of sight af Fairford i.e. within visual sight of the runway at all times".
there is concern over them breaking down and bad-press ensuing........
whether this is true or not I have no idea, but the person telling me should know....
The plan was for 4 to come over (3 x USMC & 1 x RAF) with tanker and C130 support a/c.
The plan was certainley for the solo display a/c to operate away from Fairford, as it was due at Farnborough tomorrow for it's validation display. The plan was for them to operate from Fairford direct to Farnborough and back to Fairford with no landings at Farnborough.
However.......
As of yesterday, as far as can be assertained, they were still on the ground at PAX in the USA waiting for flight clearance.
hidetheelephants said:
Perhaps given CMD's lack of craven fawning recently the UK has found its way onto the ITAR naughty list and been banned from having such wondrous hardware.
It shouldn't be funny, but you definitely get a for that one.Mrtee, your friend is sort of right, but as aeropilot says they are currently having a few issues departing the USA.
Al
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