Saw this and can easily see why.
This is yet another example of why the world is laughing at our military relevance in these dangerous times

BRITAIN'S £3.2 billion aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has been reduced to acting as a scrapyard. Essential pieces of equipment are being ripped out of the stricken warship, a move that raises questions over its long-term future. (DM and others). That equipment? Probably being used to maintain her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth .
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History. First the NAVY wanted TWO carriers BUT:-
The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) declared that the UK needed only one aircraft carrier; however, penalty clauses in the contract meant that cancelling the second vessel would be more expensive than actually building it. The SDSR, therefore, directed that the second aircraft carrier, Prince of Wales, should be built but upon completion be either mothballed or sold. (Defense review)

Building one aircraft carrier was outwardly a good idea, but building TWO with no aircraft to put on them, and no catapult system to launch even the most basic of carrier capable aircraft? And all because all the idiots in charge wanted was American F-35's and only F-35's.

Hell, if they had kept the Harriers at least something would have worked from the get go!

HMS Prince of Wales was built by the now disbanded Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership of the defence companies BAE Systems, Babcock International and Thales Group with the Ministry of Defence.

I wonder. Did they all just take the money and run? Probably knowing they had built two crocks of ****e?
They building these two buckets to brand new, unproven designs, that failed spectacularly in any number of ways on both ships? Only who paid (and will continue paying) for these two leaky buckets that will probably end up as high quality scrap metal? That would be the taxpayer and the armed forces as a whole.

The **** poor political procurement of these white elephants is part of the reason why the three UK armed forces have low manning levels, poor retention of personnel, and a major morale problem. Let alone lousy accommodation, and poor outdated general and personnel equipment. Some of the experienced personnel finding themselves over deployed, doing without as SOP, or arbitrarily fired because of the ignorance of political cutbacks under the guise of Strategic Defense Reviews.

It's more than embarrassing, it's got to be borderline criminal!

Still, there could be a plus after one or both of those buckets are scrapped.
Can anyone calculate the number of beer cans that could be made out of their shiny metal work!

Paul,

Aircraft carriers are now like battleships; sea-skimming missile targets.

Knowledgeable people drafted the penalty clauses in the rust bucket contracts.

It depends on beer can size. A sole-source contract is needed to determine size of can.

Same types of contracting going on here in the upstart colonies.

I've heard of BAE Systems and Thales.

Not too much is new under the sun.

 

Very true.

 

There is a lot that goes in to a successful carrier design and construction. And why it's important to continue the program without stoppages.

Design flaws need to be corrected and improved, manufacturing processes continually improved, work force trained and used effectively, crew trained and used effectively.

If anything, this proves the fallacy of "let's build a carrier and we'll be equal to the US".

 

"Building one aircraft carrier was outwardly a good idea, but building TWO with no aircraft to put on them, and no catapult system to launch even the most basic of carrier capable aircraft? And all because all the idiots in charge wanted was American F-35's and only F-35's".
F35b
nuff said

 

Put in a couple of screen doors in the bow and sell it to Russia. It can't be any worse than their current flat top.