Thread: For those who care about these things. HMS Invincible......

That ship was also the reason for the loss of RAN jets, once the Thatcher Government reneged on the sale from the RN to the RAN and the Melbourne was paid off we had no fixed wing platform.

Sad to see ships being broken up.

I don't believe Maggie 'reneged', I believe it was a matter of Malcolm Fraser offering her back for the big show in the Falklands.

Originally Posted by 4bee

I don't believe Maggie 'reneged', I believe it was a matter of Malcolm Fraser offering her back for the big show in the Falklands.

That's not my recollection, we never took delivery of HMS Invincible.

With the Falkland crisis, the UK Government realised that they need the capability to project their presence away from Europe and without the aircraft carriers they had to rely on friendly governments which were few and far between then you talk of the South Atlantic. Hence the UK decided they needed to retain HMS Invincible and this gave the Frazer Government a reason to to run the razor gang through the RAN's wishlist for a replacement for HMAS Melbourne and the purchase of new jump jets.

Diana

The purchase of Invincible was, I believe, wishful thinking on the RAN's part. Aust. would have had to purchase harriers from the UK, plus
the equipment needed for their maintainence, in the short term we would have had to employ, on loan, personnel from the RN, just to operate them.The Melbourne had been a basket case for many years, more often than not, not able to fly fixed wing aircraft off her deck, because the catapult was u/s. Melbourne soaked up millions of dollars , which could have been better spent upgrading the rest of our surface fleet.[ buying decent replacements for the DDG'S, Arleigh-Burke destroyers, perhaps] Perhaps a better option for the RAN would have been to present the Government with a business case to scrap Melbourne much earlier, concentrate on a surface fleet capable of high end warfare, fully equipped with the tools to do so.

Our surface fleet now is in the situation where , instead of sending a ship to relieve the ship on station in the Middle East, they swap crews, because we dont have enough of the weaponry and high tech gear to fit more than one ship. Those who wish for a new Fleet Air Arm[ fixed wing], should explain how we would protect the asset from attack, with the fleet we have. Having said that, the new LHD recently launched has a ski jump, designed to allow stol aircraft to fly off. It would be a simple matter to change some of the aircraft on order from the US to S.T.O.L. models, and coupled with the projected Air Warfare Destroyers, have a Task Group with a modest Air Warfare capability. Even then, without the US,we would not be taken too seriously by any future enemy. Bob

Anyone wondering where the Royal Navy is headed in regards to projecting air power should have a look at this:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_class_aircraft_carrier"]Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:QE_class_carrier.jpg" class="image"><img alt="QE class carrier.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/QE_class_carrier.jpg/250px-QE_class_carrier.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@en/thumb/b/b0/QE_class_carrier.jpg/250px-QE_class_carrier.jpg[/ame]

Read on dear reader.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Invincible_%28R05%29"]HMS Invincible (R05) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:HMS_Invincible_1991_DN-ST-92-01125s.jpg" class="image" title="HMS Invincible (R05)"><img alt="HMS Invincible (R05)" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/HMS_Invincible_1991_DN-ST-92-01125s.jpg/300px-HMS_Invincible_1991_DN-ST-92-01125s.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/9/9e/HMS_Invincible_1991_DN-ST-92-01125s.jpg/300px-HMS_Invincible_1991_DN-ST-92-01125s.jpg[/ame]

Originally Posted by bob10

The purchase of Invincible was, I believe, wishful thinking on the RAN's part. Aust. would have had to purchase harriers from the UK, plus
<snip> Bob

Bob

My recollection is exactly that, the RAN was to phase out the Skyhawks and replace them with Harriers to fly off Invincible. The projected budget was to be huge and Maggie's decision not to sell handed Frazer a happy excuse not to spend the money and downgrade the Navy's airborne capability.

Diana