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**soleil** · 03-06-12, 06:06

HMS Queen Elizabeth: It's taller than Nelson's Column and generates enough energy to power 5,500 homes - but does Britain really need a super-sized £3.5bn aircraft carrier? | Mail Online

**Ballistic** · 03-06-12, 08:22

Originally Posted by soleil

HMS Queen Elizabeth: It's taller than Nelson's Column and generates enough energy to power 5,500 homes - but does Britain really need a super-sized £3.5bn aircraft carrier? | Mail Online

‘People talk about them as Cold War relics but I don’t support that,’ says Dr Lee Willett, Senior Research Fellow in Maritime Studies at the Royal United Services Institute.

‘Their use has evolved, and they have proved versatile and effective as a mobile airfield that you can park anywhere.

'Just think of the USS Carl Vinson, which was the first aircraft carrier into action post 9/11 off the coast of Afghanistan.

Oh dear.

Back to school Dr. Willett.

**Mike777** · 03-06-12, 09:57

"They are a significant diplomatic tool" My kind of diplomacy

**Naval_Gazer** · 03-06-12, 10:01

Originally Posted by Ballistic

‘People talk about them as Cold War relics but I don’t support that,’ says Dr Lee Willett, Senior Research Fellow in Maritime Studies at the Royal United Services Institute...

'Just think of the USS Carl Vinson, which was the first aircraft carrier into action post 9/11 off the coast of Afghanistan.

Oh dear.

Back to school Dr. Willett.

I sincerely doubt those were the words Dr Willett used. I suspect it was a journalist's interpretation of this passage from one of his reports:

National Crises and the Utility of Naval Power: The Haiti Case Study

Originally Posted by RUSI website

While reporting from the flight deck of the US aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), stationed off the Haitian coast, BBC reporter Steve Kingston stated that:

'One of the largest warships in the world, it was from this deck that America launched the first air strikes after 9/11. Now the battle is a humanitarian one. ..... Since Friday, the Vinson's pilots have flown well over 600 missions, getting the seriously injured out of Haiti and taking food, water and medicines in.'

**Topstop** · 04-06-12, 20:48

Originally Posted by Mike777

"They are a significant diplomatic tool" My kind of diplomacy

Where as Dr. Willett is just a tool.

**Seadog** · 05-06-12, 11:08

Originally Posted by Topstop

Where as Dr. Willett is just a tool.

That's a lot of faith to put in the accuracy and integrity of Daily Mail reporting especially following NG's advisory.

Or is your experience of Dr Willett's work more extensive than a likely repackaged line in a newspaper that doesn't know a Colonel from a Corporal?

**Seadog** · 05-06-12, 17:40

and generates enough energy to power 5,500 homes

The DAs may have been installed but I doubt that any of them are generating any electricity yet. Call me pedantic - you're pedantic Seadog- but I also reckon that (once the CVFs are live) 5500 homes is loafing by a factor of 10. Still, its the Daily Mail not KCL/IMechE/IMarEST/RUSI/RINA or the Beano for that matter. Shite spouting, ill informed useless barstewards.