Aircraft carrier for sale

[Smeghead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12883511

The Royal Navy is selling off the decommissioned aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

Bidders anyone?

[Metcarfre]

I hear these guys over here - who are TOTALLY NOT just thinly-veiled agents for the Chinese navy - want to buy it to turn into a harbour-bound casino. No, really!

[Dutch guy]

Its a shame a ship like the Ark Royal will probably end its life as scrap. It is a ship worthy of being preserved in/as a museum. (Or better yet, not taken out of active service in the first place, but its sadly too late for that)

[Master Gunner]

Hmm, maybe Harper will go buy that, to compliment the subs we also bought from the UK, and the F-35s which are apparently so important to our national defense.

[empath]

The most interesting proposal mentioned in that article was "or a school and nightclub."

School AND nightclub.

Wow; I got my education in the wrong country.

[Gollom]

Hmm, maybe Harper will go buy that, to compliment the subs we also bought from the UK, and the F-35s which are apparently so important to our national defense.

Does the aircraft carrier also catch fire while a sea? Wouldn't want to ruin the theme.

[Master Gunner]

I'd settle for having to have a second ship follow behind it with a complete set of spare engine parts whenever it goes anywhere.

[Alja-Markir]

Its a shame a ship like the Ark Royal will probably end its life as scrap. It is a ship worthy of being preserved in/as a museum. (Or better yet, not taken out of active service in the first place, but its sadly too late for that)

Given how many works of art like statues have been scrapped to fuel war efforts in the course of human history, I feel no sorrow over this weapon of war suffering being torn apart, bolt by bolt. May its scrap be turned into art.

~Alja~

[Vanguard]

Hello, new house boat ^^

[gcninja]

More like LRRcraft Carrier
that or the Principality of Sealand can get a new addon. its first navy boat

[VanHelsing23]

Yes! Now we can be one step closer to Snow Crash!

[JustAName]

Yes! Now we can be one step closer to Snow Crash!

I think this is quite probably the most fantastic response.

[empath]

...yeah, VanHelsing topped it.

Thread's over, people; thanks for coming out.

[Agloriouscuppa]

the now show on radio 4 actually made a humourous quip at this event. Basically conversation plays out like this...

*french accent* 'yes we must take down Gaddafi so we vill be using our Aircraft Carriur' (spelling errors for effect)
*American Accent* 'Yes we too shall use our aircraft carriers'
*french accent* 'And Britain how vill you be sending aircraft. Will you be using your aircraft carrior... Oh wait I forgot you have no aircraft carriors!'

[Ed.]

would be nice to see it preserved somewhere

[Elomin Sha]

DAMN YOU CAMERON! If we kept Ark Royal, we could have kept the harriers and would save fuel for Libya bombing instead of flying back and forth to Italy.

[Agloriouscuppa]

DAMN YOU CAMERON! If we kept Ark Royal, we could have kept the harriers and would save fuel for Libya bombing instead of flying back and forth to Italy.

I have a similar reaction but on the whole libya thing I'm kind of like... Weren't we out of money? If we cant preserve our fucking navy why the hell are we spending money bombin bitches.

[Metcarfre]

So you want a military you can't use. Interesting.

[Agloriouscuppa]

Not that we cant use, but were cutting... EVERYTHING. Because the government says were out of money. Meanwhile the RAF are tasked with flying over the Mediterranean and Africa everyday. If were out of money then why are we doing it? I know there's a thread for this so I'll shut up now.

[Elomin Sha]

I say keep trident and don't go for another form of nuclear deterrent. That would save £25Bn.

[Dutch guy]

The British Navy is not cutting everything. They are cutting the wrong things and keeping the wrong things however. (Like halving a standing order for much needed Chinooks in half. And then pretending they actually ORDERED the remaining as extra, making them seem the good guys)

They are not cutting in the ridiculously large fleet of frigates, while those are pretty much useless in this day and age.
They are keeping the Tornado, which is ineffective at best at the role it was designed for.
They are keeping up with a plan to convert the ridiculously expensive Eurofighter to enable it to perform ground-attack. A role the airframe was never designed to perform as the airframe doesn't really have the space to accommodate the needed equipment. They cut the harriers, which were more effective at the role the Tornado is now supposed to fulfill and which were cheaper to run. On top of that they could operate much more effectively anywhere in the world much faster as they could operate from an aircraft carrier.
Britain still has plans to replace/update its Main Battle Tanks, while those have been shown to be completely useless in a modern conflict.
Britain is still operating the Storm Shadow cruise missile, which has to be launched from an aircraft almost over the target. The US-made Tomahawk has more range, can be launched from a ship off the coast and is actually about half as expensive.
This list can go on for a while

[Niko]

Well I've got about £0.70 here, I'm sure if a few of us chip in we could get our hands on it...

[empath]

Damn, I had a feeling I shouldn't have spent that $5 on a lottery ticket - it was a premonition that I should be contributing to the "HMS LoadingReadyRun" fund...

...on the other hand, if I win...

[Keab42]

More like LRRcraft Carrier
that or the Principality of Sealand can get a new addon. its first navy boat

Whilst that would be awesome I think Ark Royal is bigger than the Principality of Sealand...

It's such a shame they're flogging her, she should have been preserved as a museum. But hey ho we've got to pay for the new ones somehow.

[themanwith4names]

I would convert this ship into a large....i don't know. i would probably just sell it again for more money.