HMS Prince of Wales

[normalbloke]

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

[98elise]

normalbloke said:

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

What would it need to load?

[Cold]

98elise said:

normalbloke said:

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

What would it need to load?

Pretty much everything that goes bang. Remember, she was just about to undergo a period of maintenance and her magazines were as good as empty.
In the meantime, casualty exercises and fire exercises have been carried out while enroute.

[normalbloke]

Cold said:

98elise said:

normalbloke said:

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

What would it need to load?

Pretty much everything that goes bang. Remember, she was just about to undergo a period of maintenance and her magazines were as good as empty.
In the meantime, casualty exercises and fire exercises have been carried out while enroute.

Exactly, conversely, QE will need to go to Glenmallen to empty all munitions before her trip to Rosyth.

[aeropilot]

Cold said:

98elise said:

normalbloke said:

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

What would it need to load?

Pretty much everything that goes bang. Remember, she was just about to undergo a period of maintenance and her magazines were as good as empty.
In the meantime, casualty exercises and fire exercises have been carried out while enroute.

At least they won't have to load ammo for the Phalanx given they still haven't been fitted back onto her after being removed last year before going to Rosyth

[CLK-GTR]

skedaddle said:

ood luck detecting an incoming attack in time to take evasive manoeuvres. Even if the missiles are detected in time, then they are designed to be maneuverable and will only need a slight adjustment to hit a slow moving target like a carrier.

Ukraine has been knocking Russian hypersonics out of the sky for months now. Maybe the Chinese ones are better but the Russian ones are nowhere near the top trump card some media would have you believe.

[98elise]

Cold said:

98elise said:

normalbloke said:

cliffords said:

Has the ship arrived at it's destination yet , met up with the other ships and when does it start it's exercises.

Also did it leave with other UK ships supporting, and protecting it ?

I’d have thought it’s had to go to Glenmallen first to load weapons.

What would it need to load?

Pretty much everything that goes bang. Remember, she was just about to undergo a period of maintenance and her magazines were as good as empty.
In the meantime, casualty exercises and fire exercises have been carried out while enroute.

Fair enough if they were going into an extended maintenance period. Personally I've only ever had to unload once. For the majority of maintenance periods we were fully loaded.

[98elise]

skedaddle said:

hidetheelephants said:

Hype missiles more like; we haven't developed them because they're of limited utility and they're exactly the white elephant boondoggle posters keep accusing these carriers of being.

How would a carrier group defend against even one missile incoming at mach 8? Multiply that problem with several incoming simultaneously and it's a very bad day.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/13/europe/ukraine-...

They won't be coming in at mach 8.

First of all you have to locate the carrier battle group, and then the carrier within that. That's not easy. The sea is big and warships are difficult to find. Satelites are crap for moving targets and aircraft will get nowhere near without being detected and intercepted by aircraft forming the outer defence layer.

Ignoring that let's say they have located the battle group and have fired. The group is still moving so the missile has to rely on sensors when on its approach. That means it has to be slower or it will be blinded by its own hypersonic plasma. It also has to be slower to maneuver effectively. If its screaming in at mach 8 towards where your ship was 10 minutes ago it could miss by miles (literally)

Hypersonic missiles have been shot down by Patriot, and that's a relatively old and system. Ship systems are more sophisticated and are just one layer in a multi layered defence.

Edited by 98elise on Saturday 17th February 15:30

[RizzoTheRat]

HMS PoW currently in Rotterdam apparently
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships...

I'm going to be in Rotterdam on Sunday, but I just checked and it appears her mooring out at the Maasvlakte is only 4km closer to the center of Rotterdam than it is to The Hague where I am now So I don't think I'll be going to have a look

[hidetheelephants]

RizzoTheRat said:

HMS PoW currently in Rotterdam apparently
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships...

I'm going to be in Rotterdam on Sunday, but I just checked and it appears her mooring out at the Maasvlakte is only 4km closer to the center of Rotterdam than it is to The Hague where I am now So I don't think I'll be going to have a look

The port authority run boat and bus(!) tours.

[98elise]

hidetheelephants said:

RizzoTheRat said:

HMS PoW currently in Rotterdam apparently
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships...

I'm going to be in Rotterdam on Sunday, but I just checked and it appears her mooring out at the Maasvlakte is only 4km closer to the center of Rotterdam than it is to The Hague where I am now So I don't think I'll be going to have a look

The port authority run boat and bus(!) tours.

They can be quite a tourist draw. On Ark Royal we had to anchor off shore in Malta. Some local boat owners were contracted to run a ferry service for the crew, but the more enterprising ones ran tourist trips. There was a constant stream of boats circling the ship!

Edited to add...

I don't have photos of the boats when we were at anchor, but when we left loads followed us out.

Edited by 98elise on Tuesday 19th March 17:48

[RizzoTheRat]

hidetheelephants said:

The port authority run boat and bus(!) tours.

Tempting, not convinced I can persuade the Mrs to go on a boat tour of the harbour after a 10k run round the city though

[glazbagun]

It was pretty cool seeing HMS Ocean docked in the Thames during the olympics. I can't imagine the scale of a full carrier!

[xeny]

98elise said:

Satelites are crap for moving targets

I'm not sure how robust this assumption will remain between SpaceX's contract to put hundreds of spy satellite's in LEO, and China placing satellites like Yaogan-41 in GEO.

Systems like TRDS can get information in and out of objects during ballistic re-entry which would allow real time targeting.

Hitting a carrier isn't trivial, but the weapons to do so are being developed faster than a carrier's evasive performance can be increased.