Invincible Class

[gforce15]

Although the subject of a Canadian carrier is one of fantasy, for several reasons(manning, money, political and public will being some of the more important ones). Would the Invincible class be the best bet for us? How do the harriers perform in the varied conditions of Canada, and could other aircraft be used instead? How much would the Brits be willing to let them go for, and do they already have plans for them? The dates for the new British carriers are a long way off at 7 and 10 years respectively, so this would obviously be a bit more of a long term deal. What type of facilities would we need for these ships, and do we have them? The advantages of having just one of these ships would be immense(although I don't know the true efficiency of the ships), giving us the ability to project our power abroad more effectively, to provide area air defence for land forces, and our own navy, and as a recruiting tool(boys like their toys, and that is a big one). How would our Frigates and Destroyers and Subs work with such a ship, and how would its purchase effect the proposed purchase of the San Antonio or other semi-amphibious ships? Many, many questions, but I feel they are reasonable, and important, if not a waste of time.

 

[FSTO]

We've been burnt once buying British (used), lets not do it again.

But;
An amphib carrier that would carry troops, landing craft, helos and Harriers would be great asset for Canada.

Building Harriers under licence could be a good fit, its a proven platform, and with new electronics etc would be more logical for us.

Saying all that we would likely need a carrier of 30,000 to 45,000 tonnes to handle all that.

As for manning:
Everybody (Canadian media and general public) who talks publicly about carriers automatically thinks Nimitz class with 70 plane airwing and a 100,000 tonnes. With modern engineering, marine systems control, bridge controls etc and a much smaller ship your crew size is reduced quite a bit. The problems with a smaller crew are: Ships husbandry, how to keep a large ship clean with a small crew, when it gets figured out give me a call. Damage Control takes a lot of people to keep a ship from sinking, just ask the RN when their destroyer ran aground off of Australia, they damn near lost the ship due to crew fatigue.

 

[gforce15]

I knew that the Upholder would come into this relativly quickly, but the subs werent in service for a very long time, and one of the main reasons they were mothballed is because the Brits switched to an all nuclear sub force. The subs were in the docks for years, and werent kept in good repair. The Invincible Class howeve,r is combat proven, and have been consistently upgraded to keep up with the times. It obviously isnt a Nimitz, but its crew contigent is obviously large, probably too large for us. Wht do you think the specifications of an ideal amphibious craft would be, and in what capacity could/would it be used, realisticly?

 

[Cloud Cover]

Google search Beedal and Royal Navy Matters.

I think you will find the Invincible class is nearing the end of service life.

Cheers.