And Who Lies That We Are Cutting Our Military Capability?
Admire the USS Reagan next to the USS Arizona memorial. Superb.
When the Bridge pipes ‘Man the Rail’ there is a lot of rail to man on this monster: shoulder to shoulder, around 45 acres. Her displacement is about 100,000 tons with full complement.
Capability: Top speed exceeds 30 knots, powered by two nuclear reactors that can operate for more than 20 years without refuelling
1. Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years
2. Carries over 80 combat aircraft
3. Three arresting cables can stop a 28 – ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet
Size
1. Towers 20 stories above the waterline
2. 1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall
3. Flight deck covers 4.5 acres
4. 4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200 pounds
5. 2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons
6. 4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 sq ft capacity
7. Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel
8. Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days
9. 18,150 meals served daily
10. Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes
11. Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring 1,400 telephones
12. 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets
13. Costs the US Navy approximately $250,000 per day for pier side operation
14. Costs the US Navy approximately $25 million per day for underway operations (Sailor’s salaries included).
Compare and contrast HMS Gordon Brown.
The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a standing legacy to Prime Minister Gordoom for his foresight in military budget cuts and his conduct as unelected Prime Minister.
The ship is constructed nearly entirely from recycled aluminium and is completely solar powered with a top speed of 5 knots. It boasts an arsenal comprised of one (unarmed) F14 Tomcat or one (unarmed) F18 Hornet aircraft which, although they cannot be launched or captured on the 100 foot flight deck, form a very menacing presence.
As a standing order there are no firearms allowed on board.
The 20 person crew is completely diversified, including members of all races, creeds, sex, and sexual orientation.
This crew, like the crew aboard the Severn Ferry, is specially trained to avoid conflicts and
appease any and all enemies of Britain at all costs!
An on-board Type One DNC Universal Translator can send out messages of apology in any language to anyone who may find Britain offensive. The number of apologies are limitless and though some may seem hollow and disingenuous, the Navy advises all apologies will sound very sincere.
The ship’s purpose is not defined so much as a unit of national defence, but instead in times of conflict, the HMSGordon Brown has orders to seek refuge in Blackpool.
The ship may be positioned near the Labour Party Headquarters for photo-ops.
Hat-tip to a contributor to this blog who wishes to remain unnamed but is well known to all of the current co-conspirators here and wishes to doff his straw boater in all of our directions for recent splendid efforts on this site. Thank you.
Magnificent image – the first one that is! Was at the Arizona memorial in 2007 – very very moving.
nice ship – shame its crewed by yanks though. Many years ago was on NAVOCFORMED in a rattly battle scarred Type 42, while the yanks had a brand spanking new Perry Class on the tour. We wiped the floor with them on every exercise :o)
The USN – the second best in NATO (well, in 1987 anyway!)
It’s a matter of record on this site that TheEyeSenior made his living shooting SeaDart missiles at things. However he once famously scored 9/10 on an exercise off of Fort Lauderdale because with the 10th one he knocked out the drone rather than the towed target.
No points given for that officially but you must know what the “let me buy you a beer for that” count can tally up to in the mess afterwards.
Hope you enjoyed your B-BBC initiation. You were good company as a newcomer into a group of friends. Please visit as often as you can. Even if the MEP hat isn’t offered then reading your site and the way you gave your views tonight you’d be a great issues campaigner on whatever you set your mind to.
Hey c’mon, back in oh, the 1940’s us yanks were pretty bad-ass! Just because our leaders piss themselves and spew apologies to anybody who appears to be offended by us now doesn’t mean we’re all pansies. At this pace, one day we’ll all be part of the World Coalition of The Holy Islamic Army together after our unick leaders give our countries away. Great post though, I thoroughly enjoyed.
An excellent post.
Funny as f . . . (oops can’t say that here).
Absolutely hilarious, my good man.
Ex-matelot here of 28 yrs. When I were a lad of 18 in 1979 I was on Hermes. We sailed into Norfolk Virginia….past 2 x US carriers. Made us look like sweepers! Awesome sight.
How many members of NuLabour have done ANY service in the armed forces? I know of at least 2 (Mercer and Duncan Smith from the Tories). We all know that Labour detest the armed forces unless they can get a good photo opportunity.
TheSpecialOne…can’t think of any ZaNuLabour examples but TheEye is ashamed to admit being on the selection committee which turned down Brig. Geoffrey Van Orden MEP for one of his attempts at getting elected. Luckily he got there that year in a different area and having somebody (you should have seen his CV and heard the personal references – awesome) who almost held NATO together when he was there during some of their worst periods of internal squabbling then the Tories in the EU Parliament have a great authority in their ranks on this subject.
John Prescott served on a ship. But only if you shouted “Gin and Tonic over here, waiter”
And Dillinger737…every single person who did the 40’s deal was a bad-ass including both of TheEye’s grandfathers. It’s why we won then but the fact that everyone seems to have slithered in to spine-of-a-jellyfish mode and sorry-about-the-Alamo it was our fault for waking up randomly dead (could have been avoided by Health and Safety Laws…lead inhalation) that the Western world needs to wake up.
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