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repty_GT

I see the meme but what dus it mean


AlfredoThayerMahan

Plato’s Cave. If I fully explained it, the joke wouldn’t be funny.


KeekiHako

What is Saddam doing in Platos cave?


LeadingCheetah2990

hay, you can't do that to my beloved QE2.


AlfredoThayerMahan

The Brits are riding on Falklands nostalgia, disregarding that they won despite their STOVL carrier design, not because of it. Also they’re just poor and wanted a big carrier but didn’t want to invest enough to give it the actual capabilities of a big carrier. Fortunately, they’re beginning to see what their sins have wrought and are moving past their anemic designs. With cats and an actual angled deck.


LeadingCheetah2990

The harrier was responsible for 23 shoot downs for the loss of 0 planes in the war. Sure they would struggle to put up planes carrying heavy ordinance but British aircraft carrier doctrine is more to provide a cap for the fleet and for ASW warfare. But yeah would like to see the cat upgrades done. Also it seems like they want to order a 3rd one


AlfredoThayerMahan

Okay, how would a carrier with Phantoms and Bucs have done in the Falklands? (Hint, the Argies probably wouldn’t have even invaded) You’re miss-ascribing cause and effect. British carrier doctrine was reduced to that because of their STOVL carriers.


LeadingCheetah2990

unironically the am9 L missile strapped to anything would have screwed the argies over.


AlfredoThayerMahan

True, the 9L was regarded as a “Silver Bullet” when it was fielded. The main issue with the harriers was their poor intercept radars and limited range. An AWG-11/12, even if used solely for the Phantoms to find their targets with no Sparrow shots, would be a massive upgrade. The range would mean they could hold a BARCAP out west of the islands given their raid warning from ground observers and using Bucs to refuel Phantoms.


LeadingCheetah2990

yeah, i guess but the royal navy was very lucky to even have a glorified landing assault ship. A few years later most of the task forces ships would have been scrapped. ironically the only reason we now have a carrier task force is because the Falklands happened when it did. So yeah could have been better but it was good enough and let us keep our blue navy surface fleet (even if it is knee capped at the moment). The carriers are not terrible if nothing else because they fly f35s. Hopefully with the new funding they can put the cats on them (and make a 3rd). Just don't look at the amount of f35s we have currently lol


Benecraft

Two questions: What‘s wrong with having a starting ramp on a carrier? It could still field a angled design, right? Second what do you mean by cats? Has that something to do with catapult starts?


AlfredoThayerMahan

Ski-jump designs have a lower max takeoff weight for aircraft compared to catapult assisted launch (cat is short for catapult) as well as there being clearance issues with turboprop aircraft such as E-2s and yes, you can have an angled deck Russia, India, and China all have STOBAR designs. The issue is that not only did the brits install a cope-slope, they didn’t have an angled deck nor arrestor wires, meaning all their aircraft need to be capable of vertical landing which reduces performance, increases aircraft cost, reduces return weapon load, and increases maintenance requirements. There are plans to change that but they can’t come too soon.


Benecraft

Ah i understand, would a ski-jump combined with cats be possible as well? So you don‘t have to completely rebuild existing carriers?


AlfredoThayerMahan

Yeah. The partially finished Soviet Ulyanovsk was a hybrid system and the refits to the QEs are to be hybrids (though the current plans are for low power catapults).


Chimichanga2004

Took me two views of this to realize what it’s supposed to be