Presenting the £1bn warship that can defend London single-handedly - Page 2 - Political Forum

Gedron · #11 (**permalink**) 08-27-2007, 12:43 PM

Education and health care are silly things to invest in at the moment because there is no real crisis at the moment concerning those matters. Save the money for when you really need it so you don't have to pull it out of somewhere else. No one ever suggests a government to "save" money instead of spending it every chance they have it.

Brother Oz · #12 (**permalink**) 08-27-2007, 12:59 PM

Because they can borrow it at very low rates of interest. If the current money is invested in something that boosts future productivity (such as Education or Health) then GDP rises.

Gedron · #13 (**permalink**) 08-27-2007, 01:17 PM

I see where your coming from Oz, I am also speaking from an American point of view, it seems the English have better money management than America. So putting money into that in England might make more sense than doing it here as it will go down the toilet.

As for America, I would rather anytime the US had a little bit of extra money it would either use it to bring us out of debt or set it aside and gain interest on it until it was needed.

Brother Oz · #14 (**permalink**) 08-27-2007, 01:44 PM

You do have some pretty serious debts, and since Americans don't, for example, like spending taxpayers' money on things like Health, paying off some of your debts would be sensible. It has to be done at the right time though. It's a good thing to do when the economy is hot: ie high GDP, low unemployment, low interest rates and high inflation. If your in recession, it's not a good idea. I don't really know what stage the American economy is currently in, in terms of the economic cycle.
About a year ago, Gordon Brown (who was then Chanceller of the Exchequer, but as you probably know is now Prime Minister) made a heap of cash from selling the right to broadcast videos through mobile phones at ridiculous prices. Since he had all this spare money, he used it to pay off all our war debt to America. I wasn't too happy about that, because our economy is in the nadir of the economic cycle (and yet isn't even in recession thanks partly to Brown's excellent performance as Chancellor), and the American government never charged any interest on the debt, but I guess he thought it would boost confidence in our economy: "look, we're so rich we can afford to pay debts that have no interest!"

Brother Oz · #15 (**permalink**) 08-27-2007, 01:45 PM

Oh, and it's the British, not the English. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish can get a bit testy about being referred to as English.

dahermit · #16 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 07:39 PM

The concept of a huge, costly ship, as being a good idea flies in the face of that Chinese sub surfacing within torpedo range of the US carrier undetected. Can anyone say: Nuclear warhead torpedo?

Heart of Midlothian · #17 (**permalink**) 09-27-2007, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neorealist

typicaly american...LMAO

what are you gonna do OZ <<shrugging>>

I would like to add that the roughly 2Bil USD doesn't just dissappear into this air...it goes to private contractors (hopefully british) and creates work for the naval shipyards, electric co., metal manufacturers, etc. Builing war m
achines does help the economy and would could argue it helps the greater good more than giving free healthcare to a 80year old on his/her death bed.

I think the ship is impressive, but battleships are becoming less and less important. I kind of suprised the english aren't building air craft carriers.

They are building aircraft carriers - two in fact, and they are British.

CVF - Royal Navy Future Aircraft Carrier, United Kingdom

"CVF carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are expected to enter service in 2012 and 2015."The design continues to evolve but CVF is expected to displace 65,000t, a size between the USA's 100,000t Nimitz class and the French 43,000t Charles de Gaulle class aircraft carriers, and three times larger than the 20,000t UK Invincible class carriers.

The carrier will have a maximum speed of 25kt. At 15kt the range is 10,000nm and the ship carries food, fuel and stores for an endurance of seven days between replenishments. Each ship will have a complement of typically 1,200, including 600 aircrew.

The major contractors include BAE Systems - prime contractor; Thales Naval Ltd - key supplier; BAE Systems Insyte (formerly Alenia Marconi Systems) - C4IS; BMT Defence Systems - naval architecture; EDS - systems integration, fleet support, through life support; Lockheed Martin - programme management and engineering; QinetiQ - computer modelling and simulation, technology, test and evaluation; Rolls Royce - propulsion, life support; Strachan & Henshaw - waste management, munitions handling; Swan Hunter - construction; VT Group - naval architecture, construction, through life support.

Oregon Elephant · #18 (**permalink**) 10-01-2007, 02:54 PM

It may be as small as a fishing boat on radar, but sonar will still pick it up just fine.

I don't know very much about the missles that you said were on the ship, but distance smart bombs (once the ship is found, and it could be found) could rain down on it, and it isn't fast like a plane to get away or within striking range, so it pretty much just sits there.