For sale HMS Invincible!

[DarrenL]

I know, I was being dramatic

[SkippyBing]

Charles De Gaulle is crap anyway. That's why they wanted to buy one of these new carriers off us no?

Not really, the problem is CdG was massively over budget and schedule, to the extent that they'd build what they could afford and then stop until the next financial year. Basically developing a single unit nuclear powered carrier was prohibitively expensive and it's been so long since they built her that they'd effectively be starting from scratch again, so it makes more sense to build an extra QE class which is a more modern design plus you get a slight cost saving for buying in bulk*.
I did hear the French were less than impressed with what they got for their money when they gained access to the QE Class plans which may not have been quite so fully developed as they'd been led to believe...

*Well you would get a cost saving if you used the same suppliers and yards, I'm guessing they won't.

[airboatr]

Also pet hate pedant time, British warships should be referred to as HMS Whatever, not the HMS Whatever. HMS is a contraction for Her Majesty's Ship and it would be incorrect to say 'I've been on the Her Majesty's Ship Battleaxe' and make you sound a bit stupid to be honest. On the other hand American ships should be called the USS Henry J Chickenfarmer because USS is short for United States Ship and it would be grammatically correct to say 'I've been on the United States Ship Ronald Reagan' as opposed to 'I've been on United States Ship Nimitz' which again makes you sound a bit stupid.

I have one of those pet things

"in hospital"

the correct phrase is
in a hospital.

[Paul K]

If you buy the Invincible, do you get a carrier bag to take it home in ?

[John]

If you buy the Invincible, do you get a carrier bag to take it home in ?

Genius!

JR

[forthbridge]

Gotta womder what the refits involve, and how often they are needed. Ark was in at Rosyth in 06-07 IIRC - surely they can go longer between needing refits?

[SkippyBing]

Gotta womder what the refits involve, and how often they are needed. Ark was in at Rosyth in 06-07 IIRC - surely they can go longer between needing refits?

Docking periods are similar to car services in that you have majors and minors. They're also scheduled to happen at set intervals (~5 years but it varies by class) to the extent that a ship's program for it's entire life is to some extent planned before it's launched, it's just a question of where it' happens to be sailing that is subject to change.
The problem with stretching the time between refits, especially with something that's as hard worked as an RN ship, is that lots of things stop working. It was actually tried a few years ago and a number of ships skipped docking periods in an attempt to save money. It cost more.

[jonesey2k]

Somebody should convert it to a giant floating NAAFI bar
Complete with PRI shop

[Garry Russell]

You could buy it Mark...I'm sure there is someone not too far from you who'll have all the missing bits

[jonesey2k]

I know a few people from Cammell Lairds
Just down the road from where I work too