quote:

ORIGINAL: catwhoorg

John,

the premise is that the when building the two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, the French would then buy/build a 3rd as a replacement for one of their existing carriers.

The 2nd British one 'Prince of Wales' would in effect act as the back-up for both navies, being used by the French when their carrier was in extended refits.

Throw in the issues between CATOBAR and ski-jump (the RN carriers will be the latter), and different military histories, it was pretty much doomed from the get go. The French officially withdrew from the idea in their defence review this year.


As I said, only a politician could be stupid enough to even dream this could work from the get go.

quote:

ORIGINAL: catwhoorg

John,

the premise is that the when building the two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, the French would then buy/build a 3rd as a replacement for one of their existing carriers.

The 2nd British one 'Prince of Wales' would in effect act as the back-up for both navies, being used by the French when their carrier was in extended refits.

Throw in the issues between CATOBAR and ski-jump (the RN carriers will be the latter), and different military histories, it was pretty much doomed from the get go. The French officially withdrew from the idea in their defence review this year.


As I said, only a politician could be stupid enough to even dream this could work from the get go.