RAR - SDNet gets an aircraft carrier!

[Forgothrax]

It actually might make more sense to register the ship and it's fleet as the security arm of an international shipping company. Perhaps if the ship didn't have the latest military hardware it would be considered less of a threat. This RAR is based on the (failed) Ebay auction of the HMS Vengeance back in 2001. That was a ship built in WW2 but upgraded a few times over the years. If we had an older ship like that instead of a spanking-new CVN, I wonder if the world's governments would be more accepting of that.

If it's a WW2-era carrier without an airwing, probably. With an airwing... depends on the planes. If it's just a bunch of third-gen fighters with original-fit equipment... that might be permissible. Emphasis on might. There's definitely going to be some noises made by various powers about handing over the munitions, though.

[madd0ct0r]

I too support the repurpose of it as an aid deployment platform. First stop is the Philippines.
I'm not sure how to avoid governments trying to eliminate a wildcard. Peaceful retooling is probably helpful, staying the fuck away from american waters would also be good. I was going to suggest we 'donate' it to an NGO, but look at the Rainbow Warrior.

We also funnel our unlimited research money to into solar, nucelar ect power generation aiming to make it self sufficient as possible.

[Borgholio]

Get rid of the combat air wing, replace with cargo and transport aircraft / helicoptors, paint a big cross on the side and register it as a hospital ship. Funds for supplies could be used to constantly replenish food and medicine for hard-hit areas. Wouldn't want to head into dangerous waters without an escort though. Would modern pirates attack a hospital ship, or do they tend to stick with freighters?

[Mr. Coffee]

. Wouldn't want to head into dangerous waters without an escort though. Would modern pirates attack a hospital ship, or do they tend to stick with freighters?

A couple of rednecks with automatic weapons can solve that.

[Siege]

I've been given a nuclear aircraft carrier capable of turning small countries into parking lots, I'm not handing that to the US government who'll do their usual with it. If they want it they're going to have to take it, and take all the risks associated with doing just that.

Having made a statement to this effect (possibly worded in a slightly more diplomatic fashion) the Queen Asphixia's Revenge and its mysterious unlimited money source sets sail to help out the disadvantaged and ruinated parts of the world with magic unending horn of plenty aid relief funding. This will cause regions from Somalia to Timor to flower and flourish, and possibly collapse global financial markets as soon as they get wise to the fact Captain Siege has literally unlimited funds at his disposal and can thus spend the world's superpowers to death by his lonesome.

Then I will cackle and stroke my pet parrot, and set about finding a sufficiently mysterious island to bury my treasure on.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I've been given a nuclear aircraft carrier capable of turning small countries into parking lots, I'm not handing that to the US government who'll do their usual with it. If they want it they're going to have to take it, and take all the risks associated with doing just that.

Having made a statement to this effect (possibly worded in a slightly more diplomatic fashion) the Queen Asphixia's Revenge and its mysterious unlimited money source sets sail to help out the disadvantaged and ruinated parts of the world with magic unending horn of plenty aid relief funding. This will cause regions from Somalia to Timor to flower and flourish, and possibly collapse global financial markets as soon as they get wise to the fact Captain Siege has literally unlimited funds at his disposal and can thus spend the world's superpowers to death by his lonesome.

Then I will cackle and stroke my pet parrot, and set about finding a sufficiently mysterious island to bury my treasure on.

This is an awesome plan.

I will take my shiny new carrier, HMS Indomitable, donate 3/4s of the air wing to the RAF and buy a couple of shiny Type 45's for escorts, stock up on relief supplies and decent carrier-capable helis and sail, well, pretty much anywhere I damn well please offering free food and water and medical supplies. But I won't go anywhere near the USA unless they have a natural disaster a la Katrina that needs my help.

[The Romulan Republic]

Get rid of the combat air wing, replace with cargo and transport aircraft / helicoptors, paint a big cross on the side and register it as a hospital ship. Funds for supplies could be used to constantly replenish food and medicine for hard-hit areas. Wouldn't want to head into dangerous waters without an escort though. Would modern pirates attack a hospital ship, or do they tend to stick with freighters?

What are the odds they'd think its a warship and run away?

[InsaneTD]

Would they even be able to get on board? How high is the lowest deck from water?

[Borgholio]

Would they even be able to get on board? How high is the lowest deck from water?

Looks to be roughly the same height as a supertanker.

[Sea Skimmer]

Some spots might actually be lower, certainly some are lower then the freeboard of a partly loaded tanker. On the other hand since you can do 30 knots it would be much harder for pirates to come alongside.

It actually might make more sense to register the ship and it's fleet as the security arm of an international shipping company. Perhaps if the ship didn't have the latest military hardware it would be considered less of a threat. This RAR is based on the (failed) Ebay auction of the HMS Vengeance back in 2001. That was a ship built in WW2 but upgraded a few times over the years. If we had an older ship like that instead of a spanking-new CVN, I wonder if the world's governments would be more accepting of that.

The US makes you remove all hard points and any and all ability to mount weapons on ANY warplane EVER, and the US laws on civilian ownership of weapons are about 1 million times more liberal then most countries. No way are you going to be able to have working warplanes on this thing.

You might be able to have a demilled carrier, maybe, but certainly no weapons of any sort other then rifles onboard before swarms of US or someone else's helicopters show up to land marines on deck and seize the ship. Realistically you'd never get to operate a nuclear carrier just because you need to be a corporation to own nuclear anything, but if you had the right people, and money, forming one to operate it might not be impossible. Certainly far more possible then the carrier falling out of the sky...

IIRC WW2 era escort vessels were converted to merchantmen and yachts a few times, but this involved serious shipyard work.

[RogueIce]

I've been given a nuclear aircraft carrier capable of turning small countries into parking lots, I'm not handing that to the US government who'll do their usual with it. If they want it they're going to have to take it, and take all the risks associated with doing just that.

If you think the US is the only government that'll be coming for you, you're kidding yourself. Pretty much every nation out there that pretends to a Navy will want to have a chat with you, if for no other reason than asking you (nicely or otherwise) how in the fuck you have a fully-functioning carrier, the first of whose class won't be in service for another 2 - 3 years. Not to mention the obvious danger posed by somebody with an entire carrier air wing commanded by some random nobody.

And I'm pretty sure the first world navies will get you, or any of us who don't surrender to somebody powerful enough (basically the US, Russia or China), sooner or later. You're a lone carrier with no escorts, because you can't magic them, only "buy" or somehow get them built. But nobody who has first-rate ships like that (or the ability to build them) will be likely to sell you any; they'll be otherwise occupied trying to board/contain/sink you.

The air wing is a pretty potent defense, but it can (and will) be overwhelmed. Who is going to sell you modern munitions compatible with your US-based air wing and incur the wrath of NATO and probably Russia and China to boot? And IIRC the entire anti-submarine defense is basically however many ASW helicopters you've got, so have fun there. And you will be, pretty much, Target Number One on many a national hit list.

Essentially, you keep the air wing and weapons and you're a threat very few countries will ever tolerate. Ditch the air wing and weapons and it'll be about what Sea Skimmer said: they'll land Marines and seize the ship anyway because now you can't really stop them. The Russians or Chinese might make you a good deal for getting their hands on the latest in USN carrier technology. On the other hand they might just give the ship to the US anyway rather than incur the kind of diplomatic baggage that would result from keeping it.

Of course it may not be roses for you in any case, because they'll probably keep you as a prisoner honored guest just to see if any more presents fall from the sky for you. That and milk the shit out of your unlimited funds, though since they're supposed to be for the upkeep of "your" carrier I imagine if you lost control of it, that'll go away as well. And since you just gave the finger to the US and most of the western world, don't expect much help from them, either. Even if you go to them first you'll probably still get arrested, questioned and at the very least closely monitored for the rest of your life to make sure nothing like this happens again without them being ready for it.

Essentially Q just totally fucked up our lives by dropping a CVN into it. Thanks, Q.

(And if it's not clear, by "you" I mean pretty much everybody, not just Siege)

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

I park it in the Caribbean, so at least I can enjoy some nice weather while waiting for the U.S. to come and take possession. I'll be on the flight deck, sitting in a deck chair, with a fat spliff in one hand and a margarita in the other, when the angry men come to take me to Guantanamo.

[K. A. Pital]

The Incognito is going to create a secret ultra high-tech commune somewhere on an uncontrolled piece of territory where the carrier will be then covered so that nobody except the core crew even knows that this is a carrier. When we have the full chain of necessary technologies, the enclave will send its agents to the less developed parts of the world as Progressors. Core idea: lots of machine-agumented labour plus flat hierarchy. The goal of a Red Singularity will be thus achieved.

No direct confrontations. The carrier is a source of magic money, which is enough to turn the world up side down, provided you spend it wisely and in small steps, not revealing yourself until the stars time is right.

[Siege]

If you think the US is the only government that'll be coming for you, you're kidding yourself.

I know that's a likely way for it to end, but if that's the way they want it they're going to have to work for it. Like I said, I'm not handing it over. If you think you got what it takes then get over here and face my air wing and marines you pansies!

Also in the meantime a good-sized chunk of my unlimited funds will go to 1) contracting the world's greatest army of lawyers to argue on my behalf in front of every court that will listen that I, Sea Captain Siege, am the rightful owner of this outlandishly huge ship and 2) acquiring i.e. buying the support I need to keep going. My army of lawyers will have to determine whether that's best done by just buying a small nation, registerering the ship with a sovereign state in exchange for heaps of gold bullion, or simply buying every T-bill I can and threatening to dump them if I see a single US marine within a hundred miles of my ship.

And all this I do while I'm off being a philantropic do-gooder somewhere off the coast of Africa because hey, unlimited funds. Maybe it'll all end with a big bang in a short while, but I might as well make the best of it while it lasts, so I shall invite my opponents to dine with me on the flight deck, mint my own gold coins, and find some excuse to tell my XO to 'roll out the long nines, Mr. Gibbs'. And since nobody will believe I've been given this ship by a being called Q I'll make up a great story to explain how I'm here. It'll involve curses and time travel, I'll make sure to say "2013? Then there's still enough time!" at least once, and hopefully leave the world so confused I get away with it long enough to convince everyone that matters that I'm maybe slightly barmy but also mostly harmless. Y'know, insofar as people in command of giant fully fitted aircraft carriers can ever be harmless.

[InsaneTD]

If you think the US is the only government that'll be coming for you, you're kidding yourself.

I know that's a likely way for it to end, but if that's the way they want it they're going to have to work for it. Like I said, I'm not handing it over. If you think you got what it takes then get over here and face my air wing and marines you pansies!

Also in the meantime a good-sized chunk of my unlimited funds will go to 1) contracting the world's greatest army of lawyers to argue on my behalf in front of every court that will listen that I, Sea Captain Siege, am the rightful owner of this outlandishly huge ship and 2) acquiring i.e. buying the support I need to keep going. My army of lawyers will have to determine whether that's best done by just buying a small nation, registerering the ship with a sovereign state in exchange for heaps of gold bullion, or simply buying every T-bill I can and threatening to dump them if I see a single US marine within a hundred miles of my ship.

And all this I do while I'm off being a philantropic do-gooder somewhere off the coast of Africa because hey, unlimited funds. Maybe it'll all end with a big bang in a short while, but I might as well make the best of it while it lasts, so I shall invite my opponents to dine with me on the flight deck, mint my own gold coins, and find some excuse to tell my XO to 'roll out the long nines, Mr. Gibbs'. And since nobody will believe I've been given this ship by a being called Q I'll make up a great story to explain how I'm here. It'll involve curses and time travel, I'll make sure to say "2013? Then there's still enough time!" at least once, and hopefully leave the world so confused I get away with it long enough to convince everyone that matters that I'm maybe slightly barmy but also mostly harmless. Y'know, insofar as people in command of giant fully fitted aircraft carriers can ever be harmless.

This sounds like it would make a hilarious fanfic. Any choice you could be convinced to write it?

[Siege]

Heh, if I had the time I'd try my hand at it, but there's at least a dozen stories I want to write / have to finish already, so not much of a chance unfortunately.

[Eternal_Freedom]

An idea just occurred to me. We have unlimited money for the purpose of operating and maintaining the carrier...so could we use that to buy off the various governments out to steal the boat? A simple "Ok lads, I'll pay off your national debts in nice $10 billion installments if you let me operate this as a mobile crisis relief centre and support my efforts by allowing me to purchase supplies from your nations" should suffice. That way we greatly boost the global economy and still get to do the whole helping disaster victims thing.

[madd0ct0r]

boost the global economy or hyper inflate it?

[Irbis]

Yeah, economy doesn't work that way.

I find it funny people still believe they would be able to legally operate it (despite plutonium on board), hide it (satellites and SOSUS), park it next to a shore (making excellent target for land missiles and subs), or do any number of unrealistic things. Relief help? Sounds noble, but carriers are kind of terrible way to do it, for one being not really designed to deliver anything other than 500 kg packages at 10.000 $ for delivery

[madd0ct0r]

Well, they're a huge boat, and huge boats are good at moving huge amounts of stuff around -like food, bottles of freshwater, cement ect.
It's also a huge morale boost when one parks up outside a disaster area. Shows you mean business.

We do still need to get stuff from the boat to the shore, but that's what paying local fisherman is for. We've got the cash, and providing steady jobs and keeping people busy is almost as important as the food and shelter stage.

[Irbis]

Well, they're a huge boat, and huge boats are good at moving huge amounts of stuff around -like food, bottles of freshwater, cement ect.

Carriers for their size IIRC have little interior capacity for anything else than aviation fuel and relatively light airplanes. If you put concrete and water into the hangar, the whole thing could capsize, I am afraid, and you'd need to dump the planes somewhere. Then, you need specialized harbor capable of handling ships that size to even load/unload stuff - good luck finding one somewhere host country can't mobilize a division of troops to capture it.

I don't know, it just seems to me a small to medium container freighter could do the same, for much cheaper, especially if it had a small air wing of helicopters and STOVL planes these British pocket carriers in Falkland war did.

[Eternal_Freedom]

boost the global economy or hyper inflate it?

Ok, maybe "pay of national debts" is too far, but with infinite money we can basically say "name your price to let me/us operate this boat with the aim of helping people." It doesn't matter if they demand $100 billion, we can pay it.

[Steve]

I've been given a nuclear aircraft carrier capable of turning small countries into parking lots, I'm not handing that to the US government who'll do their usual with it. If they want it they're going to have to take it, and take all the risks associated with doing just that.

Having made a statement to this effect (possibly worded in a slightly more diplomatic fashion) the Queen Asphixia's Revenge and its mysterious unlimited money source sets sail to help out the disadvantaged and ruinated parts of the world with magic unending horn of plenty aid relief funding. This will cause regions from Somalia to Timor to flower and flourish, and possibly collapse global financial markets as soon as they get wise to the fact Captain Siege has literally unlimited funds at his disposal and can thus spend the world's superpowers to death by his lonesome.

Then I will cackle and stroke my pet parrot, and set about finding a sufficiently mysterious island to bury my treasure on.

.....you'd change your name to Sidney Hank for added lulz, wouldn't you?

[madd0ct0r]

Well, they're a huge boat, and huge boats are good at moving huge amounts of stuff around -like food, bottles of freshwater, cement ect.

Carriers for their size IIRC have little interior capacity for anything else than aviation fuel and relatively light airplanes. If you put concrete and water into the hangar, the whole thing could capsize, I am afraid, and you'd need to dump the planes somewhere. Then, you need specialized harbor capable of handling ships that size to even load/unload stuff - good luck finding one somewhere host country can't mobilize a division of troops to capture it.

I don't know, it just seems to me a small to medium container freighter could do the same, for much cheaper, especially if it had a small air wing of helicopters and STOVL planes these British pocket carriers in Falkland war did.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013 ... ffort.html

On Thursday, she welcomed her first aid shipment. It's a fraction of what is needed, but it's a start: 20 boxes containing dried noodles, canned goods, sardines, medicine and bottled water.
In signs that relief efforts were picking up, U.S. Navy helicopters flew sorties from the USS George Washington off the coast, dropping water and food to isolated communities. The U.S. military said it will send about 1,000 more troops along with additional ships and aircraft to join the aid effort.
So far, the U.S. military has moved 174,000 kilograms (190 tons) of supplies and flown nearly 200 sorties.

190 tons is pretty weak really - that's a days work with a forklift, but the key here is getting the supplies to places that are inaccessible otherwise. You're right a container freighter would work, but that's not what Q gave us

Is there anywhere in the world we could safely drydock for refitting?

[InsaneTD]

Where they build 'em? A floating dry dock might be able to do it.