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Brazil has been having problems with its French-built aircraft carrier, the Sao Paolo. Basically aged past its prime, the 1960’s era Clemenceau-class 36,000 ton carrier originally named the Foch was supposed to be scrapped off in Turkey, but Turkey decided all the mercury,\u00a0 tons (literally) of asbestos etc. made the ship too toxic to allow entry. Unable to find a scrap facility, Brazil blew the rusted bottom out of her and sank her at about 5000 meters off the northeast of Brazil. Not surprisingly, numerous environmental groups are not happy about it.<\/p>\n
“The sinking of the aircraft carrier Sao Paulo throws tons of asbestos, mercury, lead and other highly toxic substances into the seabed,” Greenpeace said in a statement. It accused Brazil’s Navy of neglecting the protection of the oceans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
MSN<\/a><\/p>\n
As they say in the car business, the French “sold her right”: they made $12,000,000 off the sale, and according to Wiki<\/a>\u00a0 the Foch\/Sao Paolo hasn’t been operational for more than three months since the sale in 2000.<\/p>\n
And on the UK side of the ocean, the 65,000 ton Prince of Wales has been docked much of 2022\u00a0 and into the current year –\u00a0 their 3 billion pound carrier is awaiting repairs for what appears to be driveshaft and coupler issues which also damaged the rudder. This leaves the Queen Elizabeth II as their sole operational carrier. Thales UK, a subsidiary of Thales, was the prime contractor for the propulsion system (others in the consortium which built it include BAE Systems, Babcock Shipyards, and Rolls-Royce.)<\/p>\n
According to the now-defunct Aircraft Carrier Alliance website, Thales UK \u201cled the design of the QE Class programme and is currently involved in the Power and Propulsion sub-alliance, which the company leads.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n