£100 billion? I said a trillion times don’t exaggerated
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If we want to use ‘presence’ as a way of drumming up business, we’d be far better off forward basing a Bay-type vessel in the Indo-Pacific. It could do counter-piracy, HADR, endless port visits, and act as a tanker for the River Batch 2’s that are already marked to operate out there.
That perhaps less glam, but persistent presence will garner far more good will and diplomatic strength than a every few years gin palace…
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Anybody know if the craft with be PFId for operational purposes with, say, P&O?
Asking for a Tory MP friend.
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People really need to research how Britannia was used before the stupidity of taking out it of service came to pass.
You are impressively uninformed. 8 F35s onboard (doesn’t include those at Marham) packs a considerable punch when it is forward deployed in places of interest. As a carrier strike group it proves the RN as a blue water navy and can effectively kill the Queen’s enemies globally, so to pin everything on diplomacy and flag waving is completely wrong. Op Fortis will of course play it’s part in the usual British diplomacy piece, but not at the expense of real operations around the world. Don’t mix up operational output with a show of force.
As for the new yacht, I think if it’s cost effective then it’s worth considering. QEC cannot commit to this sort of tasking as one carrier will be operational around the globe carrying out jet operations, and the other so likely be littoral support.
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There are 8 onboard or at least according to all reports.
I’m not counting stuff that can be flown in of course. Who would for an on board count.
Also. I understand the concepts of Force vs Thought and soft power.
I was more commenting on the archaic nature of an aircraft carrier.
Hypersonic missiles are coming if.not already present. With no known defence.
If the Chineese of Russians want to sink her they will and the whole fleet. With ease.
Let’s not kid ourselves.
A carrier strike force is as much an effective threat as a castle was once cannons became common.
Or in naval terms as much an effective threat as a wooden hulled ship of the line vs an iron clad.
Soft power maybe. Nothing more.
Yet. Where there is a weapon, money will be put into developing countermeasures.
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One would of course assume and hope so!
Afterall star forts followed castles and dreadnaughts followed iron clads.
Not to mention that aircraft carriers themselves killed off battleships.
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And yet China are plugging billions into their own carriers and now have 2 active types themselves… Yes, there may be challenges to them but there’s still a use (for now).
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Indeed.
The future will certainly be drones, directed energy weapons, hypersonic missiles, asymmetric cyber warfare.
Question is, delivered from what sort of platform?
Cyber has no range limit.
The others and more have their available range improving all the time.
My overall point is whether a floating airfield planned for a 50 year operational life is realistically going to be valid 5, 10, 20 or 50 years from now.
My best educated guess is by 2035 it will be obsolete as technology surpasses the ‘carrier age’.
It will of course still have a use. But not as a strike carrier.
Of course.
But china can afford to build 20 carrier groups, even if only to be used for 20 years.
They have the resources and (more importantly) political control to do what they want.
Only as long as the target is connected. If it’s not, you still need something kinetic.
Computers can be kinetic…
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Ah, the classic hypersonic missile argument. Totally and utterly irrelevant. If we were to go to war with China or Russia then we are screwed regardless. Carrier Strike works as a concept and will be proven once again this year. The whole is we can project power far beyond our shorelines in places of military and political interest. The idea that the carrier is just a sitting duck is missing the point completely.
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Oh ok.
I will just take your word for that. 
Unless you want/can pay for a 600-ship navy.
or have more than 148 Challenger 3 tanks.
Or some tracked IFVs to support them. Oh, wait
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Confirmed today the MOD is paying for it despite it being a trade ship and not a warship and despite it having a £16bn black hole to plug.