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16:04
USS Gerald R Ford Vs HMS Queen Elizabeth - Nuclear vs Non-nuclear
Curious Droid
·
May 11, 2026
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Transcript
0:00
The USS Gerald R Ford and the HMS Queen Elizabeth
are the latest and most modern aircraft carriers
0:06
in the world. Both use the latest technology
to support planes like the F-35 but why has
0:13
the British carrier not followed in the footsteps
of the American carriers and used nuclear
0:19
to power it’s systems and what are the pro’s
and cons of being nuclear or non-nuclear in
0:25
a modern navy.
0:39
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As the British influence and military budgets
shrank after WW2 so did the size and number
2:35
of its aircraft carriers in the belief that
new carriers would be used as part of a larger
2:40
NATO task force. So the last generation of
invincible class light carriers was coming
2:46
in at 22,000 tonnes, Compared to the US’s
Nimitz class which tip the scales at 100,000
2:53
tonnes.
The British carriers were built primarily
2:56
for anti-submarine warfare in the cold war
North Atlantic and not for projecting naval
3:01
power around the world like the US ones.
However, after the devastating Kosovo war
3:07
of the late 1990s, Europe was seen to have
done too little too late to intervene. So
3:13
a European Union Rapid Reaction Force was
proposed that would be able to act on a global
3:18
level and independently of NATO and the US.
As part of this 3 new large aircraft carriers
3:25
would be built which would share a common
design, two by Britain and one by France with
3:30
other European nations making up the support
group.
3:34
However things didn’t quite go to plan,
the French cancelled their carrier in 2013
3:39
due to budget restraints and because they
thought that the non-nuclear propulsion was
3:44
a step backward for French technology.
So the British continued alone with the HMS
3:51
Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales
as it was now believed that bigger was better
3:57
and small carriers just couldn’t provide
air superiority quickly, one of a number of
4:04
lessons learned from the Falklands war.
These are collectively called the Queen Elizabeth
4:10
Class carriers or QEC and named after a first
world war super-dreadnought battleship and
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not the current Queen of England just in case
you were wondering.
4:22
Even though the QEC carriers are a bit smaller,
they are still the second-largest non-US Navy
4:28
warships in the world after the WW2 Yamato-class
Japanese battleships, displacing 65-70,000
4:36
tonnes depending on the final build. They
were also to be of an adaptable design that
4:41
could use either CATOBAR ~ Catapult Assisted
Take-Off, Barrier Arrested Recovery or Ski
4:48
jumps for Short Take Off and Vertical Landing
aircraft, in particular, the F-35B Lightning
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II joint strike fighter.
When the British carriers were on the drawing
4:58
board nuclear power was looked at as an option.
With the right design, it can provide enough
5:04
power to run the ship without refuelling for
up 25 years.
5:10
Land-based reactors usually produce about
1600MW, marine reactors are a few hundred
5:16
MW. These reactors have to be very small yet
powerful for their size to fit in the limited
5:21
space of a ship, even one the size of an aircraft
carrier
5:25
This small size means more expensive materials
have to be used that are more resistant to
5:31
radiation and that the neutron interaction
with fissionable material before it escapes
5:36
into the shielding is much less. So highly
enriched weapons-grade uranium is often used,
5:43
this increases the power density and extends
the reactor lifetime but is much more expensive
5:49
and a greater security risk.
You also can't rely on gravity to drop the
5:55
control rods into the reactor core to shut
it down like land-based one because the pitching
6:02
and rolling motion of the ship in the sea,
so mechanical control systems must work flawlessly.
6:09
This and extra things like the desalination
of seawater to make fresh water for the cooling
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system, all add’s to the cost and makes
it very expensive to build a nuclear-powered
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ship.
But in recent years there has been a move
6:24
against nuclear ships with some countries
not allowing nuclear-armed or powered ships
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in their territorial waters and as these are
the flagships of the country they represent
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they are carrying both ecological and political
baggage.
6:40
The size of the QEC carriers also limits where
they can dock and maintenance can be carried
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out only at nuclear-certified ports. The UK
has only two certified X Berths at Devonport
6:55
and Faslane.
Maintenance requires specialist nuclear technicians
7:00
and then there is the decommissioning at the
end of their working lives. The US has a specialist
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area at Puget sound for the disposal of their
nuclear assets and large areas in remote locations
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where the remains of the reactors can be buried.
The UK has still to complete the decommissioning
7:20
of a single nuclear submarine.
Although Britain could build nuclear carriers,
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all its experience is in submarines and not
surface ships. The only shipyard set up for
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assembly of nuclear-powered ships is Rosyth
which is booked up with decommissioning old
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nuclear subs and building new ones. It would
also need to bring in a substantial number
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of nuclear specialists from the US or France
at considerable expense as we don’t have
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enough in the UK.
All this contrasts with the US, where the
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US Navy is one of the biggest and oldest nuclear
operators in the world. It has a huge amount
8:00
of experience that dates back to the end Manhattan
project in the 1940’s.
8:04
It has developed 27 different reactor designs
that have been used in 219 nuclear-powered
8:12
vessels and brought over 526 reactor cores
into operation. It currently operates 81 nuclear-powered
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vessels, 11 aircraft carriers and 70 submarines.
It’s clocked up over 6200 reactor years
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and the nuclear-powered vessels have travelled
over 240 million Km without a single reactor
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accident and it has a safety record that is
second to none.
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One of the major differences between the new
US Ford-class carriers and the previous generation
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Nimitz class was the introduction of more
powerful A1B reactors built by Bectel which
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are both smaller and simpler to operate, yet
generate at least 25% more power than the
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A1W Westinghouse built reactors in the Nimitz.
The Nimitz class carriers have been in service
9:04
since 1975 and in that time a lot of new technology
has been developed such as the EMALS Electromagnetic
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Aircraft Launch System as well as many more
modern systems requiring an electrical supply.
9:18
There are also the near-future weapons and
defence systems like rail guns, directed energy
9:24
weapons and dynamic armour in the pipeline
all of which will require large electrical
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supplies, something that the Nimitz class
had reached the limits of.
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The Ford Class carriers were designed to have
at least double the electrical generating
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capacity of anything they need now to allow
for future developments.
9:44
The US carriers use steam-power not only to
power the turbines for the propellers but
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also electrical generators and steam catapults
to launch the planes, steam being something
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which the nuclear reactors produce a lot of.
But all the steam plumbing creates a lot of
10:01
complexity, maintenance, weight, and more
manpower to operate and also determines where
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the reactors are placed.
Whilst steam catapults have proved to be very
10:11
reliable in the past they have no form of
feedback control and as such can transmit
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very large tow forces that can stress the
airframes of the planes especially lighter
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ones which means more maintenance, cost and
aircraft downtime.
10:28
So for the Ford Class carriers, the EMALS
Launch System was developed. This uses an
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electric linear motor that uses feedback to
accelerate the plane smoothly depending on
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its weight. Its also lighter and less complex
to fit than the old steam ones and with a
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quicker recharge time should be able to launch
more sorties in the same time.
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Something which is often talked about it is
the unlimited range of nuclear-powered ships.
10:56
Well, yes they do have an unlimited range
but unlike a nuclear submarine which travels
11:01
alone, a carrier is always accompanied by
the carrier strike group of supporting warships
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which are often non-nuclear.
The planes themselves also require aviation
11:14
fuel has to be replenished by supply ships
along with food, water, and ammunition if
11:19
extended missions are ongoing.
The Royal Navy has never operated nuclear
11:24
carriers, so it has always had oilers or fuel
replenishment tankers to resupply it’s aircraft
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carriers as part of their operation. This
meant there was much less of an incentive
11:35
to go nuclear with the new carrier.
The cost of building and maintaining nuclear
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is higher than running conventional oil powered
carriers, even with rising fuel costs factored
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in. It will take about 15 years before the
cost of fuel catches up extra cost of building
11:55
a nuclear version and that’s without the
periodic nuclear refuelling costs and the
12:00
very expensive and problematic decommissioning
at the end of their service life.
12:06
Old conventional Aircraft carriers are often
sold on to foreign powers so some of that
12:11
money can be recouped, nuclear ships, on the
other hand, can not be sold on and become
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a liability.
About every 25 years or so the nuclear reactors
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on a Nimitz class carrier have to be refuelled
which can take it out of service for several
12:26
years and is usually combined with a major
refit and cost’s billions to complete.
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The Royal Navy has only a small number of
nuclear technicians for its submarine fleet
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and would struggle to find new ones to look
after any new nuclear carriers.
12:43
So if nuclear was out what could be used in
its place. The solution they opted for was
12:48
Integrated electric propulsion or IEP with
electric motors to drive the propellers, something
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which is well proven in the commercial shipping
sector but still a novel feature in military
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ships, the new Zumwalt class destroyers in
the US navy also uses this type of IEP propulsion.
13:10
Using a combination of two Rolls-Royce Marine
Trent MT30 36MW gas turbines, basically, a
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Rolls Royce Trent 800 jet engine mated to
a generator and four 11MW Wärtsilä diesel
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generators, this combined setup can supply
up to 116MW of electrical power.
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The QEC carriers have twin propellers which
are each driven by two 20MW General Electric
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induction motors.
The diesel generators provide the baseload
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supply for normal cruising and when extra
speed or power is required the gas turbines
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are used as well.
As the entire system is electrical, the generators
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can be anywhere on the ship that is suitable,
freeing up space for other uses like aircraft
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hanger storage.
Both the QEC carriers were designed for the
14:03
EMALS launch system even though it wasn’t
fitted in the end, they still enough power
14:09
generation to allow it to be retro fitted
at some point in the future if required.
14:14
Lessons learned from the Falklands War showed
that the STOVL Short Take-Off and Vertical
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Landing Sea Harriers on a light carrier like
HMS Invincible could carry out more sorties
14:26
than conventional aircraft on a larger catapult
powered carrier like the Ark Royal as it would
14:32
have been severely limited due to the bad
weather of the South Atlantic if it had been
14:37
in service as it was scrapped two years earlier.
Instead of using the conventional takeoff
14:43
F-35C that the US Navy opted for and which
are suited to the larger Ford Class with the
14:50
EMALS launcher, the MOD opted for the F-35B
STOVL version which meant the need for catapult
14:57
and arresting gear was removed and echoed
the Falklands experience but now with a full-sized
15:03
carriers, each with many more aircraft.
A ski jump at the end of the runway requires
15:08
nothing in the way of power or complexity
compared to a catapult but achieves the same
15:13
result with STOVL aircraft.
So, in the end, the Royal Navy ended up with
15:19
two of the most modern carriers in the world
but without going down the nuclear route,
15:24
yes it was a cost-cutting measure but then
the US defense budget is about $600M to the
15:31
UK’s $50M and you could have two QEC carriers
for the price of one Ford-class carrier with
15:39
a substantial amount of change and without
all the nuclear baggage and long term costs
15:45
that it entails and do a very similar job.
What do you think of the latest carriers from
15:52
the UK and the US, let me know in the comments,
so thanks for watching and please don’t
15:57
forget to subscribe, thumb up and share.
— end of transcript —
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