When Great Britain began building the fearsome new aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth ten years ago, everyone understood why it was doing this.
The phantom passion that overcomes the former “mistress of the seas” does not allow to live in peace. Moreover, its last imperial performance took place a long time ago, in 1982, when Argentina wanted to take away its Falkland Islands from the old colonialists. Sensing then an acute offense, the old woman Britain sent her fleet to the South Atlantic, which punished the Argentine aggressor, although he himself received a fair beat. The whole British nation was then triumphant, and the amount of beer drunk in pubs skyrocketed.
A lot of time has passed since then, and frankly, the greatness of the “mistress of the seas” has faded. However, one must think about greatness. And nothing else can be imagined except to return to the World Ocean with a new invincible fleet. The aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth took a long time to build. Finally, in 2017, it passed sea trials and was commissioned. It took another three years to bring it to full combat readiness, and now there were reports in the world press that Queen Elizabeth would soon go on alert.
This miracle of technology and engineering is the largest and most expensive ship ever built in Europe. Displacement 65 thousand tons, length 280 m, width 73 m, crew of 1600 people and 40 fighter-bombers F-35B Lightning II. It can reach a speed of 25 knots. The cost of this “iron monster” is about 17 billion euros plus American aircraft at 110 million euros apiece. Yes, and a refueling tanker was also built, without which the ocean raids of the “monster” are unthinkable.
One of the most popular topics in Britain regarding this monster was the question: “Why do we need this?”. The most common response from the authorities was that without the Queen Elizabeth, the British economy would perish, since the British bring 50% of food and energy products to the islands by sea, and sea communications must be protected. The idea of why the British economy did not die without this aircraft carrier has not been considered until now. And in London’s plans – the construction of another exactly the same ocean toy called the Prince of Wales.
And the thought creeps in that London is dreaming of its former imperial greatness. To make everything go back to the good old days. In the twentieth century, for example, the main naval victory of the British was the destruction of the fleet of the French allies after they surrendered to the Germans in 1940. To prevent the French ships from getting to the Germans, something had to be done. The British did not waste time on persuasion. Those French ships that were stationed in British ports were captured, but those that were in the distance had to be stricter. The liquidation of the Allied fleet was called mysteriously and heroically – Operation Catapult. The French ships stationed in Alexandria were disarmed and made incapacitated, and the grouping in the Algerian ports of Oran and Mers el-Kebir had to sink to the bottom – there the French did not want to disarm. Admiral Sommerville’s squadron literally shot down the French ships. 1,297 French sailors were killed.
Then the French squadron at Dakar was destroyed, and the squadron at Maritinik was not allowed to fish only thanks to the intervention of President Roosevelt.
After that, there was a long lull in the heroic affairs of the British Admiralty. Even to escort caravans to Murmansk, the British went without much hunting, and it happened that the caravans were defenseless in front of German submarines and the Air Force.
However, no matter how you look at this policy, it was imperial for the islanders. And now what? Whom are we going to smash? The French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” and without the help of the British would drown from old age. In general, there is no subject for ocean politics, but there is politics. And an old British anecdote comes to mind:
The elderly gentleman taught himself in the morning, when everyone was still asleep, to do exercises on the Thames embankment. Once, when he was pushing hard from the parapet, a confused policeman approached him and said:
– Excuse me, sir, I understand that this is none of my business, but it seems to me that your lady has long gone…
Meanwhile, we read that Queen Elizabeth is preparing to venture out into the Pacific to contain China. The aircraft carrier will be accompanied by two destroyers, two frigates, two tankers and helicopters. What intrigues of China this group of slow-moving targets will restrain is not reported. Although, knowing the customs of British politicians, one can say in advance that they will come up with “intrigues” on the fly. The bearers of the spirit of the “mistress of the seas” probably know that with the advent of supersonic anti-ship missiles, the era of aircraft carriers began to decline, which cannot and will not learn to defend against the latest air and submarine attack weapons. US aircraft carrier formations are embarrassed, for example, to approach the shores of Iran after the Americans failed to repel an Iranian missile strike on US bases in Iraq in January 2020.
And the PRC, along with the Russian Federation, belongs to the powers that have such means and are working to improve them. This is a verdict for any aircraft carrier. And it can turn out to be a ridiculous boat trip, reminiscent of another British anecdote:
England. Cool, rainy morning. The apartment has a wife and a lover. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. Wife:
– This is the husband – jump out the window.
The lover, without hesitation, jumps out and runs naked down the street. And then the athletes are running, caught up with him, one and says:
– Sorry, sir, do you always run naked in the morning?
– Yes.
– Excuse me, sir, do you always run in the morning in a condom?
– No, only when it’s raining.
It might be impractical to compare running naked with a condom to London’s naval policy, but the comparison begs to be found.
Dmitry Sedov, Strategic Culture Foundation