Britain** reported that the British aircraft carrier "Prince of Wales" may be mothballed, or it may be sold to friendly countries at a low price. After the news came out, it caused heated discussions in the international community. And the focus of people's discussion is mostly on whether the news is true, and if it is true, who will answer it?
Although the official spokesman of the British Navy has repeatedly denied the statement that the "Prince of Wales" aircraft carrier is going to be **, objectively speaking, the possibility of the news being true is very high, and the reason is very simple, Britain has neither the money nor the technology.
It is not surprising that the economic situation of the United Kingdom after Brexit has not improved as much as it thinks, and it is not surprising that the United Kingdom, as the closest country in the world to the United States, is doing well. The poor economic situation and good face have made the British ** team seriously short of funds. It is important to know that raising an aircraft carrier is like maintaining a car, it costs a lot of money to buy it, and it also costs a lot of money to maintain it, which may be more important than buying an aircraft carrier.
In addition, the extreme environmentalism implemented by Western political correctness has made the degree of deindustrialization far greater in Britain than in the United States, resulting in the British military industry being almost paralyzed. According to a report by the United Kingdom last year, Britain has lost its gun barrel production capacity, and is even unable to make gun barrels, what to use to build aircraft carriers?
According to previous reports, almost all spare parts for another British aircraft carrier "Queen Elizabeth" came from the "Prince of Wales", and the fundamental reason for this is that Britain has lost the ability to manufacture certain components.
Therefore, the "Prince of Wales" was not of much value to the British Navy, both from a financial and technical point of view, and not only did it not improve the combat capability of the Navy, but it became a huge burden, whether it was mothballed or sold, it became almost a given.
Then the question is who will Britain sell it to? There is speculation that it is India.
To a certain extent, India is indeed the most likely buyer of the "Prince of Wales", after all, India has the ability to build aircraft carriers, and naturally it also has the ability to maintain them, and India also has a certain demand for aircraft carriers because of political factors. However, objectively speaking, the probability of India buying this aircraft carrier is not high.
First of all, India does want aircraft carriers, but the aircraft carriers it wants are not aircraft carriers that it bought, but aircraft carriers that it builds itself.
Anyone familiar with Indian aircraft carriers will understand that whether it is the Vikramaditya, or the Kyiv-class aircraft carrier, or the Vikland, which India built itself, their actual combat power is very vulnerable in a real national war. These two aircraft carriers, like India's moon landing program, are more symbolic than practical.
The reason why India is like this is because of the local ** forces in India. Modi ** needs such a "domestic aircraft carrier" to unite the people, so India does not care about the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier, only considers the aircraft carrier made in India, of course, it is okay, there is also an element of supporting the development of local industries, but in any case, the Indians are probably not too interested in this "Prince of Wales".
Plus carrier-based aircraft in the hands of India.
During Modi's visit to France last year, 26 Rafale-M aircraft were supplied to India's aircraft carrier force, however neither the French Rafale M nor the Indian MiG-29 K had takeoffs and landings with the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier Prince of Wales.
Although the MiG-29K has the ability to take off and land in a glide jump, it does not have the experience of taking off or landing on a NATO aircraft carrier. Truth be told, if India had done it, it would have made history.
Therefore, the last ship, the "Prince of Wales", which even India does not want to take over, may not escape the fate of being mothballed.
To be honest, from a strategic point of view, it is undoubtedly sad to have such a fate. Compared to it, the predecessor of the Liaoning, the Varyag, experienced a very different fate. After nearly a year of overhauls, it even has the opportunity to be at the forefront of taking off and landing the world's most advanced carrier-based fifth-generation aircraft.
Think it's a strength gap.