Yeah absolutely good sense……apart from:
Attitudes like that are the reason we are in the sh!t in the first place.
Think long term and plan accordingly, rather than dance to the direction of the wind.
a) So switching to a carrier design where you are tied into a single aircraft supplier with problematic design issues and unknown actual aircraft price tags are of course going to reduce overall program costs.
b) The carriers are not here at the moment. They won’t be here for quite a while. Why would we need to throw up infrastructure right now for something we won’t have for 5 years? Your point is completely nonsensical.
Regarding OCU – I’m interested to learn how you plan to convert people to the F-35B without any costs. Furthermore, I’d point out that both the French and the US, to which the UK have strong and strengthening military ties have CATOBAR carriers to which pilots can be sent for both training and interoperability reasons.
c) From the 1998 SDR – there are numerous mentions of a joint aircraft between RAF and RN. While the report does mention JSF as a contender, it does not confirm its selection, nor does it enter into the STOVL/CATOBAR debate at all.
Some of the more pertinent quotes to the carrier’s actual requirements are:
Aircraft carriers and seaborne forces have a wide utility, particularly for power projection and rapid deployment operations
Future Aircraft Carriers and Carrier-borne aircraft. One of the key longer-term issues in the Review has been whether to replace the current generation of aircraft carriers and their aircraft, and if so with what. Our conclusion is that the ability to deploy offensive air power will be central to future force projection operations.
Future Offensive Air System. Future offensive air power requirements have been studied in conjunction with future aircraft carriers and carrier-borne aircraft. The proposals developed in the maritime context will meet a substantial part of Britain’s overall future offensive airpower needs. There will, however, be an important requirement to replace in around 20 years’ time the capability currently provided by the Tornado GR fleet in the offensive support role.
Planning to procure two large aircraft carriers, capable of operating up to 50 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters from all three services at one time (compared with a maximum of 24 aircraft now), which will give us a new, potent and flexible maritime capability to project power.
In the post Cold War world, we must be prepared to go to the crisis, rather than have the crisis come to us. So we plan to buy two new larger aircraft carriers to project power more flexibly around the world.
See the common theme there? Power projection. Power projection is a direct function of aircraft payload-range. Anyone with even a rudimentary grasp of air power understands that.
….apart from those small points yeah good sense! :rolleyes:
When you get a scooby about what you are talking about, come back to me.
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