Quotulatiousness

October 25, 2009

Royal Navy carrier plans: going, going . . .

Filed under: Britain, Military — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 20:34

A report in The Guardian walks a bit further down the road to the increasingly likely end of aircraft carrier operations in the Royal Navy:

Defence chiefs are considering scrapping plans to have two large aircraft carriers equipped with fast jets, a move that could save billions of pounds, Whitehall officials said today.

The idea would be to have just one carrier holding US-made joint strike fighters, with the second, more basic, ship, being used only as a platform for helicopters and possibly unmanned drones equipped with missiles and cameras.

The two proposed carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, due to go into service in 2016, and the Prince of Wales, to follow in 2018, are already running £1bn over budget. The original estimated cost was £3.9bn.

Consideration is being given to cutting the number of joint strike fighters to be flown from the carriers, from 138 to about 50, saving more than £7bn.

The head of the Royal Navy last month conceded that the decision to build two large aircraft carriers could be overturned. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope said that though contracts had been signed to build the carriers, next year’s defence review could cause those plans to change.

Personally, I suspect that the final decision to cancel the carriers has already been taken, the government is just waiting for an opportune moment to make the announcement. Given that the rest of the fleet has been shrinking for years, eliminating the two carriers would allow the government to “save” an even-more-reduced Royal Navy from further cuts . . . until next budget period.

Vikings lose to Steelers, 27-17

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 20:20

It was a very competitive game, but the difference was penalties and turnovers. Minnesota had a touchdown called back on a tripping penalty (one of 11 total penalties), while Brett Favre had a fumble and an interception returned for touchdowns.

The Vikings couldn’t gain a half-yard when it might have turned the game, then watched the Steelers’ big-play defense end their unbeaten season with two long touchdown returns in the final 6½ minutes.

LaMarr Woodley’s 77-yard fumble return and Keyaron Fox’s 82-yard interception return on turnovers by Favre allowed the Steelers to turn back Minnesota’s repeated comeback attempts, and the Steelers rode three major defensive stands to an important 27-17 victory Sunday.

The anticipated quarterback showdown between Favre and NFL passing leader Ben Roethlisberger became a defensive duel. And the Super Bowl champion Steelers (5-2) — No. 1 defensively the last two seasons — are tough to beat in any game that’s decided by defense.

The Viking defence actually did very well in the absence of Antoine Winfield (who may be out for 4-6 weeks), although Benny Sapp had a couple of bad plays during the game. If the Vikings weren’t hurting for DBs, he might have been benched . . . but he worked hard after the mistakes. Sidney Rice continues to develop as a big-time receiving threat, adding another 136 yards after his career performance last week. Percy Harvin had a beautiful kick return for a TD, which put the Vikings back into contention, and Adrian Peterson had good combined rushing/receiving numbers, although he didn’t break 100 rushing yards.

Still, if you had to pick a game to lose, losing to the defending Superbowl champions in an out-of-conference away game would probably be the one to choose. Not that I’m happy they lost, mind you.

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