[00:00] The USS Gerald R Ford and the HMS Queen Elizabeth
are the latest and most modern aircraft carriers
[00:06] in the world. Both use the latest technology
to support planes like the F-35 but why has
[00:13] the British carrier not followed in the footsteps
of the American carriers and used nuclear
[00:19] to power it’s systems and what are the pro’s
and cons of being nuclear or non-nuclear in
[00:25] a modern navy.
[00:39] Now this video is sponsored by NordVPN and
just like the latest aircraft carriers, it
[00:44] is designed to help protect you whilst your
out surfing the high seas of the internet
[00:49] which at times can make the wild west look
like a calm and peaceful place.
[00:53] One of the problems I have had with other
VPN’s is that once your logged in, if their
[00:59] system is slow then your whole connection
is slowed down, however when I tried NordVPN
[01:05] I found that there was hardly any noticeable
drop in speed plus you can have upto 6 devices
[01:11] run thru one account which is really useful
in our house, because when the kids come home
[01:16] from school we can have 3 computers and 2
ipads and an iPhone all being used at the
[01:21] same time and that last thing I need is a
slow connection and everyone moaning and complaining
[01:27] about it.
Just in case you not sure why you would need
[01:31] a VPN, basically, once you're behind a VPN
its much more difficult for hackers to find
[01:37] your real IP address and gain control of your
computer and access any potential personal
[01:43] data like passwords, emails, bank login’s
and alike and if you on the move and using
[01:48] open public WiFi access point your data is
also encrypted.
[01:54] You can also use them to disguise your real
location for content that is geographically
[02:00] locked away from you by making you look like
you’re in a different country and you can
[02:04] choose which country you appear to be in from
the simple to use NordVPN app.
[02:09] And now if you go with their 3 year deal you
get upto 70% off and you can get the first
[02:16] month free by using the coupon code “curiousdroid”
at the address shown, there is even a 30 money-back
[02:23] guarantee so there is no excuse for not trying
and with that lets it crack with the video.
[02:29] As the British influence and military budgets
shrank after WW2 so did the size and number
[02:35] of its aircraft carriers in the belief that
new carriers would be used as part of a larger
[02:40] NATO task force. So the last generation of
invincible class light carriers was coming
[02:46] in at 22,000 tonnes, Compared to the US’s
Nimitz class which tip the scales at 100,000
[02:53] tonnes.
The British carriers were built primarily
[02:56] for anti-submarine warfare in the cold war
North Atlantic and not for projecting naval
[03:01] power around the world like the US ones.
However, after the devastating Kosovo war
[03:07] of the late 1990s, Europe was seen to have
done too little too late to intervene. So
[03:13] a European Union Rapid Reaction Force was
proposed that would be able to act on a global
[03:18] level and independently of NATO and the US.
As part of this 3 new large aircraft carriers
[03:25] would be built which would share a common
design, two by Britain and one by France with
[03:30] other European nations making up the support
group.
[03:34] However things didn’t quite go to plan,
the French cancelled their carrier in 2013
[03:39] due to budget restraints and because they
thought that the non-nuclear propulsion was
[03:44] a step backward for French technology.
So the British continued alone with the HMS
[03:51] Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales
as it was now believed that bigger was better
[03:57] and small carriers just couldn’t provide
air superiority quickly, one of a number of
[04:04] lessons learned from the Falklands war.
These are collectively called the Queen Elizabeth
[04:10] Class carriers or QEC and named after a first
world war super-dreadnought battleship and
[04:17] not the current Queen of England just in case
you were wondering.
[04:22] Even though the QEC carriers are a bit smaller,
they are still the second-largest non-US Navy
[04:28] warships in the world after the WW2 Yamato-class
Japanese battleships, displacing 65-70,000
[04:36] tonnes depending on the final build. They
were also to be of an adaptable design that
[04:41] could use either CATOBAR ~ Catapult Assisted
Take-Off, Barrier Arrested Recovery or Ski
[04:48] jumps for Short Take Off and Vertical Landing
aircraft, in particular, the F-35B Lightning
[04:53] II joint strike fighter.
When the British carriers were on the drawing
[04:58] board nuclear power was looked at as an option.
With the right design, it can provide enough
[05:04] power to run the ship without refuelling for
up 25 years.
[05:10] Land-based reactors usually produce about
1600MW, marine reactors are a few hundred
[05:16] MW. These reactors have to be very small yet
powerful for their size to fit in the limited
[05:21] space of a ship, even one the size of an aircraft
carrier
[05:25] This small size means more expensive materials
have to be used that are more resistant to
[05:31] radiation and that the neutron interaction
with fissionable material before it escapes
[05:36] into the shielding is much less. So highly
enriched weapons-grade uranium is often used,
[05:43] this increases the power density and extends
the reactor lifetime but is much more expensive
[05:49] and a greater security risk.
You also can't rely on gravity to drop the
[05:55] control rods into the reactor core to shut
it down like land-based one because the pitching
[06:02] and rolling motion of the ship in the sea,
so mechanical control systems must work flawlessly.
[06:09] This and extra things like the desalination
of seawater to make fresh water for the cooling
[06:14] system, all add’s to the cost and makes
it very expensive to build a nuclear-powered
[06:20] ship.
But in recent years there has been a move
[06:24] against nuclear ships with some countries
not allowing nuclear-armed or powered ships
[06:29] in their territorial waters and as these are
the flagships of the country they represent
[06:34] they are carrying both ecological and political
baggage.
[06:40] The size of the QEC carriers also limits where
they can dock and maintenance can be carried
[06:48] out only at nuclear-certified ports. The UK
has only two certified X Berths at Devonport
[06:55] and Faslane.
Maintenance requires specialist nuclear technicians
[07:00] and then there is the decommissioning at the
end of their working lives. The US has a specialist
[07:06] area at Puget sound for the disposal of their
nuclear assets and large areas in remote locations
[07:13] where the remains of the reactors can be buried.
The UK has still to complete the decommissioning
[07:20] of a single nuclear submarine.
Although Britain could build nuclear carriers,
[07:26] all its experience is in submarines and not
surface ships. The only shipyard set up for
[07:32] assembly of nuclear-powered ships is Rosyth
which is booked up with decommissioning old
[07:38] nuclear subs and building new ones. It would
also need to bring in a substantial number
[07:43] of nuclear specialists from the US or France
at considerable expense as we don’t have
[07:49] enough in the UK.
All this contrasts with the US, where the
[07:54] US Navy is one of the biggest and oldest nuclear
operators in the world. It has a huge amount
[08:00] of experience that dates back to the end Manhattan
project in the 1940’s.
[08:04] It has developed 27 different reactor designs
that have been used in 219 nuclear-powered
[08:12] vessels and brought over 526 reactor cores
into operation. It currently operates 81 nuclear-powered
[08:20] vessels, 11 aircraft carriers and 70 submarines.
It’s clocked up over 6200 reactor years
[08:29] and the nuclear-powered vessels have travelled
over 240 million Km without a single reactor
[08:36] accident and it has a safety record that is
second to none.
[08:41] One of the major differences between the new
US Ford-class carriers and the previous generation
[08:46] Nimitz class was the introduction of more
powerful A1B reactors built by Bectel which
[08:52] are both smaller and simpler to operate, yet
generate at least 25% more power than the
[08:58] A1W Westinghouse built reactors in the Nimitz.
The Nimitz class carriers have been in service
[09:04] since 1975 and in that time a lot of new technology
has been developed such as the EMALS Electromagnetic
[09:11] Aircraft Launch System as well as many more
modern systems requiring an electrical supply.
[09:18] There are also the near-future weapons and
defence systems like rail guns, directed energy
[09:24] weapons and dynamic armour in the pipeline
all of which will require large electrical
[09:30] supplies, something that the Nimitz class
had reached the limits of.
[09:34] The Ford Class carriers were designed to have
at least double the electrical generating
[09:39] capacity of anything they need now to allow
for future developments.
[09:44] The US carriers use steam-power not only to
power the turbines for the propellers but
[09:49] also electrical generators and steam catapults
to launch the planes, steam being something
[09:55] 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
[10:07] 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
[10:17] very large tow forces that can stress the
airframes of the planes especially lighter
[10:23] 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
[10:34] electric linear motor that uses feedback to
accelerate the plane smoothly depending on
[10:40] its weight. Its also lighter and less complex
to fit than the old steam ones and with a
[10:46] quicker recharge time should be able to launch
more sorties in the same time.
[10:52] 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
[11:09] 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
[11:31] 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
[11:41] is higher than running conventional oil powered
carriers, even with rising fuel costs factored
[11:48] 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
[12:17] a liability.
About every 25 years or so the nuclear reactors
[12:21] 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.
[12:32] The Royal Navy has only a small number of
nuclear technicians for its submarine fleet
[12:37] 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
[12:56] which is well proven in the commercial shipping
sector but still a novel feature in military
[13:02] 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
[13:18] Rolls Royce Trent 800 jet engine mated to
a generator and four 11MW Wärtsilä diesel
[13:25] generators, this combined setup can supply
up to 116MW of electrical power.
[13:32] The QEC carriers have twin propellers which
are each driven by two 20MW General Electric
[13:39] induction motors.
The diesel generators provide the baseload
[13:43] supply for normal cruising and when extra
speed or power is required the gas turbines
[13:48] are used as well.
As the entire system is electrical, the generators
[13:53] can be anywhere on the ship that is suitable,
freeing up space for other uses like aircraft
[13:59] 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
[14:19] 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.