The other day on the loch

[Oldbaldguy]

Just last night I watched a video of a gaggle of little tug boats warping the Royal Navy’s Big Ship That Couldn’t out of her berth on Loch Long.  Very gracefully and professionally done, the not quite mammoth carrier, sporting two island structures when one has proven perfectly adequate throughout history, no catapults and a rhino horn thing at the end of its flight deck, pivoted prettily on the loch then allowed herself to be led away at the end of a string.  I wondered why.  Does it not have a motor of its own?  The wee tugboat did its job admirably but surely the Admiralty intended for the ship to be more self-animated.  A couple of Evinrudes or even long oars sprouting from the hangar deck (assuming it has one) would have been more impressive.  If the MoD thinks a couple of bitty tugboats are adequate propulsion for air ops at sea, then I wish the Royal Navy the best of luck.  And then there was its air wing or obvious lack thereof.  Does the FAA still exist?  Does it possess any sea going aircraft at all?  Without something on deck to wow benighted taxpayers who could not help but see the thing as it wafted past with its radars turning and ensign flapping, the uninitiated proletariat might think it was nothing more than an ugly cross channel ferry on its way to work and not the lethal extension of their country’s might it is supposed to be.  While I am unabashedly American, half my roots come from north of Hadrian’s Wall and it pains me to see a navy that was once peerless and the very cuttingest of edges reduced to building ships that appear to be born broken and without purpose.  Or did I miss something?

 

[europapete]

Hmmm.....don't know. Not up to speed on the modern Navy. The only modern ship in the stash is a Flower Class Corvette. Sounds more potent than what you described though. 

[Archimedes]

3 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Just last night I watched a video of a gaggle of little tug boats warping the Royal Navy’s Big Ship That Couldn’t out of her berth on Loch Long.  Very gracefully and professionally done, the not quite mammoth carrier, sporting two island structures when one has proven perfectly adequate throughout history, no catapults and a rhino horn thing at the end of its flight deck, pivoted prettily on the loch then allowed herself to be led away at the end of a string.  I wondered why.  Does it not have a motor of its own?  The wee tugboat did its job admirably but surely the Admiralty intended for the ship to be more self-animated.  A couple of Evinrudes or even long oars sprouting from the hangar deck (assuming it has one) would have been more impressive.  If the MoD thinks a couple of bitty tugboats are adequate propulsion for air ops at sea, then I wish the Royal Navy the best of luck.  And then there was its air wing or obvious lack thereof.  Does the FAA still exist?  Does it possess any sea going aircraft at all?  Without something on deck to wow benighted taxpayers who could not help but see the thing as it wafted past with its radars turning and ensign flapping, the uninitiated proletariat might think it was nothing more than an ugly cross channel ferry on its way to work and not the lethal extension of their country’s might it is supposed to be.  While I am unabashedly American, half my roots come from north of Hadrian’s Wall and it pains me to see a navy that was once peerless and the very cuttingest of edges reduced to building ships that appear to be born broken and without purpose.  Or did I miss something?

 

That was painful to read. I cringed throughout. The Senior Service is not even the vaguest shadow of its former self and the MoD’s abject and chronic lack of planning for its two flagships (and the entire navy as a whole) is a source of acute embarrassment to this particular Brit and many like me.

 

Does the FAA exist? In name. It has been emasculated.

Sea going aircraft: These two huge aircraft carriers apparently can carry 24 F-35B’s apiece but at this stage it is unclear whether the 12 F-35s per carrier that the UK decided it could afford actually are onboard.  The MoD’s own pages and others are gloriously vague on all of that.

The lack of cats and traps does make both of the carriers very expensive roll-on, roll-off ferries.

 

Pffff! 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[MikeC]

End of the day, the Services and the MoD do what their masters - the government of the day - demand with the money available allocated by said masters.

 

That's my six penn'orth, and this is probably at dire risk of going political, so that's my one and only contribution.

[Christa]

Ships of force being tugged about a loch may be part of Royal Navy training for tugboat crews.

 

Just a fort.

[quang]

 

22 minutes ago, Christa said:

Ships of force being tugged about a loch may be part of Royal Navy training for tugboat crews.

 

… formerly  known as tug-of-war

[LSP_Ron]

For what its worth, this explains the two island design and why they went that route.

 

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/why-does-hms-queen-elizabeth-have-two-islands/

 

As for the reason it was being "tugged" around, it has a problem with one prop coupling and needs repair as per below.

 

https://news.usni.org/2024/02/05/u-k-carrier-hms-queen-elizabeth-sidelined-european-carriers-head-for-pacific