Yes they can.

Honestly that’s more difficult that one would think.

I think the previous poster made a good point. Support personnel of a large variety of career fields will be required to support whatever future naval aircraft the Royal Navy operates, and the large gap between the retirement of the GR.9’s and the introduction of the F-35C (I still don’t think it will be operational with the RN on time personally…nobody else is getting it on time) means that many career fields won’t have a place in the Royal Navy for many years.

I can tell you from experience that the number of different types of career fields required to support a given aviation asset is large, and with something like carrier-based naval aviation, the expertise in certain aspects of the operations is very specific. Whether it is deck handlers, ordnancemen or one of a variety of different types of folks that will be necessary for fixed-wing carrier-based operations you have a lot of pieces that will be required for it all to work.

This also doesn’t even begin to cover what will be required in terms of upper leadership for the squadrons to be formed. Many of the upper leadership in the RN (& RAF) will likely be long gone by 2018, meaning you’ll have a gap where you lack a cadre of experienced fliers (and maintainers, etc.) I agree that exchange tours can help with some of this, but how is the RN planning to do this? Are they going to keep fixed-wing pilots in their ranks and just have them spend the next 8 years doing exchange tours with the USMC and/or USN?

You can’t send everyone on an 8 year TDY to the States (or other places) for exchange tours. A lot of folks will likely be reassigned to other duties or perhaps retire themselves.

I can also personally speak from experience that peacetime plans in the military almost never go as planned. There are always delays and changes which result in more delays and more changes. It’s a never ending cycle that frustrates just about anyone who has ever worn a uniform.

Perhaps the MoD has a greater plan for all of this that I’m not privy too, and I certainly hope they do, but right now it just seems like the gap between retirement of the Harrier force and introduction of the F-35 is too large.

Quite. I have been aboard a CVS doing flying operations and seen the teamwork and skill, from the pilots to the chockheads on the deck, to the bridge and navigating teams, the watchkeepers keeping the deck trim and level and incresing speed when needed, ATC and others in the ops room, various sensors, communications systems and landing aids that need maintaining and operating…. I think nobody with experience of carrier ops would think you could not practise these skills for a decade and then pick up the baton.

Sign the petition here: Saving the Harrier

Looking to the future – it seems as if everyone has forgotten that pilots are not the only people who need to maintain skills and currency?

What about flight deck crews? ATC and airspace management? The watchkeepers in the Ship Control Centre, etc, etc. They cannot be sent on an exchange posting.

Well there’s about twenty still in MOD hands..

So can anyone answer the question – is there really “about twenty” Sea Harriers at Culdrose? Presumably none are at Shawbury now?

Not if it is in a one on one with a single ASW helicopter or MPA. Incidentally, the above – about missile firing giving away position – would apply to SSBNs and SSGNs too, or any sub firing an encapsulated antiship missile.

It does!

A naval task group will know where its helicopters are, and will you that it is investigating in a certain area.

Obi

Do you know how many Shars are at Culdrose? This guy thinks that there are about twenty there.

Royal Navy’s Sea Viper missile system hits its target

And, during recent trials in the Mediterranean, the system achieved a direct hit in a salvo (multiple missiles) firing against a manoeuvrable sea-skimming target travelling at hundreds of miles an hour.