A new Royal Navy logistics centre in Portsmouth dedicated to the maintenance of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers has been officially opened.
The Royal Navy say here that the new Hampshire facility “will see everything from new lightbulbs, to critical engine parts funnelled through the site, helping to ensure that following maintenance the QEC carriers can quickly return to operations to protect and defend the UK’s interests at sea”.
Secured with a £7 million contract with BAE Systems and Francis Construction, the new centre is the final project delivered within the 19-year QEC Infrastructure programme. Beginning in 2003, the programme has invested £350 million into the Portsmouth naval base and £100 million in Scotland, creating and sustaining at least 550 jobs across the 50-year life of the vessels.
Located alongside the base port’s carrier berths, the centre was officially opened yesterday by Defence Procurement Minister, Jeremy Quin.
Defence Procurement Minister, Jeremy Quin said:
“The Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers are the flagships of our Royal Navy, providing critical at-sea protection of the UK and our allies. Ensuring we can provide quick and efficient logistical support to our Royal Navy vessels is crucial to maintaining our resilience and operational advantage. I’m delighted to unveil a new facility dedicated to serving and preserving our Queen Elizabeth Carrier vessels throughout their 50-year lifespan.”
You can read more here.
Gosh! A stores shed!
It is often the very mundane that wins wars. The final whosh bang cycle is dependent on a lot of people, many miles from the front, doing their jobs and having the kit to do it.
I believe I am right in saying that the allied army that defeated Germany in 1944 – ’45 had 70 to 80% of its strength delivering supplies to the frontline unit…
Store sheds and trucks may not win wars, but as Putin has recently found out, poor logistics can seriously spoil your day.
Cheers CR
Hey CR. Even though logistics and supplies are very important, due to the lack of a long range ground based air defence system and, even more pressingly, completely inadequate numbers of Sky Sabre both in service and to be procured, what would prevent this facility from being instantly eliminated?
That’s ok… Portsmouth is also home to the Type 45…
Often thought that maintaining the Sampson on ARE Portsdown Hill would provide specific early warning for Portsmouth when networked to available T45s.
Yes, Davey B has remarked on what may be possible using that facility.
Yes, and having a small CAMM “storage unit” next to it might be useful. Nice umbrella for Portsmouth?
AA
Agree- if that radar set is working than some PODS with CAMM/ Sea Ceptor or better still Aster 30 would be a good idea. At least that way the home of the RN is protected- forget the fact the rest of the UK could really do with some of those facilities too. By my reckoning if we had say 10-15 such sites strategically dotted around the UK we would have the beginnings of a decent air defence network/ BMD network.
Agreed. I count at least 30 sites of CNI in the military/gov/intel agencies alone.
Sadly we know it won’t ever happen, we are very expeditionary orientated. I’d like both, but there are lots of things I’d like!
With you all on this. Appropriate GBAD coverage, shared inventory with the RN, all linked in with ships and shore based radar networks. Hope the powers that be are thinking of implementing such things.
Now that would be a simple answer for a lot of the issues…. And a perfect place…
I am making $92 an hour working from home. i was greatly surprised at the same time as my neighbour advised me she changed into averaging $ninety five however I see the way it works now. I experience mass freedom now that I’m my non-public boss.
That is what I do.. http://www.profit97.com
Still allowing this SHIT i see.
I am making $92 an hour working from home. i was greatly surprised at the same time as my neighbour advised me she changed into averaging $ninety five however I see the way it works now. I experience mass freedom now that I’m my non-public boss.
That is what I do.. http://www.profit97.com
Whos attacking Portsmouth? I can’t think of any country who is going to invade the U.K. if the U.K. was getting close to looking like that was a possibility defences would be put in place. Right now mobile anti air/anti missile has to be the focus. There always seems to be this illusion that a Sam system protects everything and nothing gets through, every sam system that has been real world attacked has failed to catch everything. So the question is then is it worth the billions to purchase and use. What would you cut? Carriers? Batch 2 type 26.… Read more »
I’d spend the money on defence to bridge capability gaps and I’d take the money from the budgets of Diversity Officers and from painting rainbows on Police Cars
And Avanti trains, town hall flags, lanyards and bracelets worn by the emergency services, etc.
😂
if it did escalate with Russia the Russian navy now very much looks to a bastion idea of keeping its SSNs all in a nice safe place and using them to hurl cruise missiles at random Key NATO bases. So we know any shooting escalation with Russia will lead to cruise missile attacks on key sites.
It might do.
Russia can launch its cruise type missiles from the surface fleet or aircraft as well. Launching from an SSN you might as well send NATO an email with its location on it?
Although I suspect we would then discover just how good NATO EW was.
There will be a lot of high level EW stuff that we won’t have turned on at all as yet.
The phrase ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet’ would be appropriate!
I believe that’s the crux of why the analysis is that the Russian SSN fleet operations are moving to a bastion model. They are focusing the refit of their SSNs to be long range land attack missile carriers. It looks like they have pretty much abandoned trying to engage wester ASW and force the Atlantic, as 90% of their fleet is old and loud.
You do also wonder about reactor life on their old SSNs sprinting them around will use it up and I’ll bet the turbines were made in…….Ukraine……so when those wear out……
I think they are being nursed along but with the total lack of spares Russian SSN activity may come to a close quicker than might be appreciated…..
As I’ve said a few times there is another whole dimension to this war and that is munitions and platform technology & manufacture.
Oh dear … if this and if that and if not and if and if …
No military in the world has all of everything. Cue the abysmal performance of the hoo-haa Russian military in Ukraine who supposedly had so much, then getting their come-uppance with a plucky, proud, small military supplied with bits of modern kit.
You get the drift?!
But what if 500,000 Russian troops backed up by the entire PLAN suddenly appear of the Isle of Wight teleported there by the Venusian intergalactic Confederation ? It’s complacency like yours that will be the death of this country. 😱😱
Question, do you assume that every MOD base/station or store, has no defence cover.
Well unless you intend on shooting back with Lightbulbs, door handles and hinges and locker doors. not a lot if the Storage shed goes pop…
Exactly right. Look what happened to the Russian army group first stuck and then destroyed outside Kyiv in February and March. Reportedly ran out of fuel, food and spares.
I think it was more like 35–40% of all personnel in WW2 allied armies were support personnel- eg payroll clerks, logistics, medical staff, engineers, headquarters officers, intelligence, military police etc. In Russia’s army it was about 90% frontline strength as most of the Red army were the poor slogging infantry riding on-top of tanks or self propelled howitzers- pretty much the same as today. Hence why they are losing and badly in Ukraine. Que JohnSki reply of how his wonderful Russian army are winning it most excellently in Ukraine and how Russia’s army is a model of decency and is… Read more »
Re your comment, I’ll just point out that the first Donbas pocket with an estimated 2-2500 Ukrainians in is now closed and the next one with perhaps 20,000 is getting closer. The fight is becoming increasingly one sided and is, on current progress, hardly “losing and badly in Ukraine”.
Does that excite you? Knowing an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation is now actually slowly becoming more successful and innocent people, in and out of uniform, who did not start this war, are dying, being raped, tortured and murdered and having their towns, cities and country destroyed by a brutal Nazi regime headed by top Nazi nonce Putin? Does that excite you, please you? Tissues out? Any condemnation of Putins illegal invasion of Ukraine yet?
excellent observations CR, very well put. I was in Air Force Ops and intel in the 1980’s. Our appraisal of Soviet logistics was very unfavorable.
Interesting to note 40 years later , how wrong we were. It’s actually far worse than we thought!
” Armchair generals study tactics, real generals study logistics.”
I am making $92 an hour working from home. i was greatly surprised at the same time as my neighbour advised me she changed into averaging $ninety five however I see the way it works now. I experience mass freedom now that I’m my non-public boss.
That is what I do.. http://www.profit97.com
If wit was sh*t, you’d be constipated!
not worth getting upset about Ian , you are off course quite correct.
Don’t knock it, the concept of stores seems completely alien to the Russian military given their performance.
“Amateurs talk tactics,
professionals talk logistics”
Thats because there plan was to steal it,
Yes. Logistics are vital. A military is nothing without the tail on which all else is built.
Providing the passive tail isn’t wagging the active dog !!😉
Thought this previously announced way back when the new jetty and power supplies were put in place.
It was announced but it has now been completed and is in full operation.
Outrageous waste of tax payers money. And what will defend it? Fitted for but not with sheds for security? Can it defend itself from hypersonic missiles? If the MoD hadn’t wasted money on Ajax we could have had 4 of these… civil servants, too many top brass etc.
On the flip side, containers and logistics 👍
I bet it’s also completely lacking triple 15 inch gun turrets too! 🤷🏻♂️
And where’s the contingency if the scots leave?
Contingency? In what? infrastructure?
I thought in my 1st post it was obvious I was rehashing all of our usual complaints but it looks like I didn’t do the greatest job of it
Mate, to be fair to you I had noted that was a wind up. Your contingency question had me thinking you’d moved on to a more serious topic.
Yeah, i think I’ve lost the plot. All I wanna do is sleep but the 2 bairns have the same as me and I’m spending half my time on the bog or cleaning up their sick. Not the time for straight thinking lol
So your argument is it’s a complete waste of money but we should have had 3 more of it. You should be head of the MoD with logic like that.
I am the head of the MoD psyops team called “w.h.o.o.s.h.”, and you sir, have just suffered a whoosh moment
😁😁 To be fair he was being ironic but congrats on your comments anyway.
Honestly, am losing the plot. Stuff coming out both ends last few days so am not with it 😂😂😂🤦🏻
Yeah ok too much information. 😂😂
Stuff out of both ends!!! Are you a politician now??
1
😄👍
TBF in time of war if we spoof Garmin and tomtom their missiles will get lost anyway👍😄
Actually the main digital online mapping companies did switch off their services in and around Ukraine.
So there might well be some degree of truth in what you say…..or it might be that the Russians were using TomTom for their logistics….
Did anyone else read
The Royal Navy say here that the New Hampshire facility…
?
Live Free or Die
I wonder if the Captain or Logs Officer on QE put in request for 36 F-35’s it would work? that would help get it returned to Ops 🙂
Why don’t they store everything on the carriers.? There’s more than enough hanger space, at least for the next ten years. 😕
I guess that is what they want FSS for mate😉
Seriously, more of this sort of thing is needed and too many only think of “defence” as the bang and the wary stuff, not the rest that enables that capability in the first place.
Example. They spent over £650 million on GOSCC and wider site. It has no missiles or guns. A waste? How many have even heard of it and what it does?
The tail is as important as the front end.
Its true- RAND did an analysis on why the PLAN for example are still not a threat to countries outside the first island chain- despite being a massive fleet with now 3 aircraft carriers. Its because of the lack of logistics and oversees bases- although they are obviously working on that. cough cough Solomon islands cough. Logistics are key. We only need to be worried about China when their reach is improved. Currently their fleet leaves port with 5-6 days supplies and a much smaller crew number onboard than a comparable NATO warship. They are simply not intending to sortie… Read more »
Agreed. But I rate the UKs overseas bases and supply networks as even higher importance.
Which is why I fear for our global ability if the opposition get in.
What have the opposition said in regards to overseas bases and access to friendly ports? I thought hat both main parties are broadly on the same page apart from labour saying increase the defence budget. (Easy when ur the opposition)
To be fair, nothing, and that is what worries me.
I feel the current lot are little different from previous if you look under the surface.
Would Corbyn have handed the SBAs back as a “Colonial” remnant?
Blair’s more centralist government understood our world role. I’m yet to be convinced current left leaning Labour parties do.
I feel it’s subservient to the EU all over again.
I’m quite happy to be shown to be wrong on this by the way MS.
Ive been turned off from politics for a while so haven’t a clue to be honest. From the Blair years I actually felt interested and that they were doing would they could to make everyone’s lives better. Living standards went up etc etc. Things can only get better as the song said. Then Cameron but with clegg attached to stop the worst. It was a major financial crisis, everyone’s in it together. From Cameron onwards it was career politicians that came through as the old lot retired. Alan Johnson, Prescott, the tory guys can’t remember names now. Now everyone has… Read more »
New Labour and the Foreign Office proposed handing Gibraltar to Spain. It was overruled by Blair because of the politics not the principle. To be honest the Foreign Office worries me even me more than Labour.
Correct – broadly speaking Boris & Co were (still is) hugely better than anything on offer under Corbyn’s mantra at the December 2019 election.
And the axiom still holds for Labour’s offering today …
The trouble is that the Corbyn, hard left rabble, are still in a lot of shadow cabinet positions.
So it would only take a leadership change for a hard left pivot to take place.
Exactly. Why people cannot see this is beyond me.
I pray traditional working class Labour voters ( not the metropolitan elite ) are aware of what they vote for.
With regards to to your accurate observation: “Its because of the lack of logistics and oversees bases- although they are obviously working on that. cough cough Solomon islands cough”
This is precisely why we in Aus and NZ are increasingly concerned with Chinese expansion.
Wrong.
Again.
Go on Sean. If you dig far enough I bet you will find you have got a sense of fun somewhere.
I just don’t equate “fun” with “stupid” as you appear to.
Point proved, I think.
Modern supply chains, there no longer order 400,000 loo rolls they now all order Just in time. still held in central stores, just taken out of on-site ordering.
??? Thoughts on this subject.
Boeing sees potential export customers for updated MQ-25 Stingray22 JUNE 2022
“The MQ-25 UAV is designed to refuel carrier-based aircraft. The UK, France, and Italy are among allies with aircraft carriers. However, the UK’s Queen Elizabeth-class carrier uses a ski-jump capability, which the MQ-25 design does not support.”
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/air-platforms/latest/boeing-sees-potential-export-customers-for-updated-mq-25-stingray
Love it if one of its operators was called Troy Tempest.
France would want to utilize the catapults. I like the bell 247 UAV tilt rotor which fits with F35 b. An unmanned osprey.
France will want its own design, buying American is last-resort for them.
The latest Italian carrier uses a ski-jump too, along with most other ships from which F35Bs will be flying off. And more navies are buying the F35B than the F35C – only the USN.
Perhaps Boing should look at adding that ability to the MQ-25 if they want foreign sales…
This is where I do chuckle at the F35C good F35B bad arguments and that F35B will be canned arguments.
F35B has got a larger operation footprint and market penetration that F35C which is a single user USN version. It is far more likely that the F35C will actually get frozen at some point.
There are enough carriers that will have F35B on board that it would make sense to have a drone system to do AAR and there is a long term persistent need to support the F35B
Fitted for but not with actual supplies.
The Royal Navy is a joke…
Since when is the RN not with supplies ( bar the ongoing FSS when deployed ) saga?
Do you like to write absolute tosh or do you like moaning for the sake of it? This new facility is a positive.
Having recently returned from deploying a carrier group of several ships for months to the other side of the world plus keeping up its many other standing commitments the RN obviously is supplied, or did they deploy on thin air?
I think the MoD and Admiralty like to spend pin money on side issues in order to con us that they have concerns greater than their private pensions.
We can worry about carp like this when we have the ships to arm and resupply..
Without “carp” like this it affects the ability of ships able to deploy and carry out their role.
“when we have the ships to arm and resupply..”
Sorry, cannot help you if that is what you think!!
ok.
If the Royal Navy is a joke then all other navies apart from the top 5 must be an even bigger joke
All those other navies werent the biggest and most powerful
afloat 70-odd years ago.
A succession of UK governments over the decades in between have persistently forgotten we are an island that nearly starved to death via belligerent naval action twice in the last century.
Both Liz Truss and Ben Wallace are in Turkey today. Highly likely to be some announcement either on Ukraine food exports, NATO accession, or arm sales to Turkey.
Or trying to get Turkey to allow Sweden & Finland into NATO. I’m not very comfortable with a quasi-Islamic fundamentalist, dictatorial, Hellenic hating Turkey in NATO.
Meanwhile
https://www.forces.net/news/russia-back-defence-secretary-stresses-importance-british-army-development
The Defence Secretary spews out this nonsense whilst his government have defended cuts to Army personnel, refuses to answer proposals about increasing the amount of GDP spent on defence and has left us with an bleak future of an Army extremely lacking in a strong and well balanced armoured force of something like 150 or so Challenger 3s, no Ajax, non-upgraded Warriors, aging AS90s. etc. Quite frankly, I think the army needs an overhaul.
I agree.
Question is how do you create the budgetary headroom to do that?
Army is so scared of anything bespoke that they just want to buy American off the shelf. Then there is the whole problem of sovereign capability.
Some of the upgrades **should** be simple and cheap like AS90 and some longer range FIRES as well as Ceptor-ER for area defence.
the Army has been “about 10 years” behind the RAF and Royal Navy in investment, Not helped by the numous changes of forces sizes and plans and wasting money on failed programs
Having invented CATOBAR(& carriers for that matter), like you say, & built carriers since their inception, it staggered me too that we failed to provide catapults for launching aircraft. Even if EMALs(?) was a non starter, could we not have just got a steam generator to do it like we used to? VSTOL is good, but not very flexible if you have to have special deck coatings to do it. Harriers were able to land on helipads if necessary/in emergency. We have what we have now & I’m glad we have carruiere strike back, but a fully rounded air wing… Read more »
It is so much more capable that what we had before it is hard to compare them. This is a really awesome capability and is a capability that UK PLC can just about afford. We could not afford the ongoing pilot training costs of F35C never mind the costs of modifying the carriers. Who are we going to be fighting that has the ability to get 24 Gen 5 aircraft off their carriers? Russia – carrier does float or work North Korean – doesn’t have a carrier Iran – doesn’t have a carrier or 5th Gen planes unless you count… Read more »
Navalised tempest might be a thing – it might not.
You can’t bet the farm on a maybe?
Lightbulbs that the RN are probably charged for at about £50 a pop.
Off Topic, but an interesting article. It is bound to cause much debate here.
https://www.navylookout.com/solving-the-royal-navys-problems/
I see Germany is looking to buy a dedicated electronic warfare version of the typhoon, that seems to be something the RAF should be giving a long hard look at.