Actually its not Lockheed’s opinion technically its still fact, the UK had previously announced its intention to procure 150 JSF which was then adjusted down to 138 aircraft.

Yes we know the govt is unliklely to keep that requirement at that number, but as yet they haven’t declared what the total but intention will be. They have said 40-50 aircraft but thats also been indicated at being the first batch of production aircraft towards a larger over all figure.

Nobody will really know till the later half of the decade when they should know how many we require and more importantly how many we can afford.:confused:

Wonder if they will sneak an F-35C trial in there at somestage whilst the EMALS is still being tested as it stikes me the EMALS launch would be a better introduction of cat launch to the F-35C then the more brutal Steam Catapult ?

Think about it :-

The existing F-35 customers will be lucky to get many of their own aircraft by 2017 so are unlikely to see India poach their desperatley needed aircraft plus only the first batch of MMRCA aircraft are supposed to be built abroad with the rest of the aircraft to be assembled in India !.

There is a museum proposal for Ark Royal, but rather than in London the idea is to place her in Gibraltar as a RN/FAA museum. They see it as an ideal tourist attraction and rather fitting seeing where Ark III sank !!.

Just having an idle look through the General Atomics website and I noticed that Qinetiq were on the team developing the AAG Advanced Arresting Gear:

http://atg.ga.com/EM/defense/aag/index.php

I must admit this long wait to get any concrete details about the changes required for the QE class is driving me up the wall!

Yikes will you be able to hold out to 2012 when they actually make the decisions. :confused:

I suspect they are awaiting for EMALS to complete testing and certification in the US and then look to buy off the shelf. They will also know by then the fixtures and fittings layout from USS Gerald Ford so as to modify the CVF design to accomadate the gear.

Have to admit i do agree with you, i would be alot happier knowing the stuff had been selected.

G

I had the impression that he was in fact quite vague with his statement, other than the fact the cats & traps will be fitted.
But he did not elude at all that both ships would be kept or would even be kitted out with cats & traps.
That said, he did seem to point in the direction of the yank EMALS system which would be a great shame if they did, with the home grown system being researched at Converteam and which appear to be quite well advanced.
That said, if theirs is very good or better/cheaper, then obviously we have to go with the EMALS.

I did not miss the emphasis on the large costs comment, associated with the fitting of the cats & traps. I wonder if they’ll use it as a smokescreen to cover the fitting of other additional equipment, or just to cover the fact that there may be other escalating costs which they are too embarrased to disclose?

Bomberboy

Well Emcat will be used for launching drones, whilst in theory they can scale it up for carrier ops, they are somewhat behind the Americans plus with four EMALS already being created for new USS Gerald Ford and the system already on aircraft launch testing i suspect the MOD are hoping the US get the system working and can thus buy it off the shelf as a matured risk free item rather than rely on a development project and the risk it entails.

I think the only escalating costs your thinking of will be aircraft, the F-35C program is still a wild card regarding eventual costs and deliveries plus the AEW element is on the back burner at the moment and hasn’t been publically reviewed since the switch to CATOBAR config. – LM have designed an Merlin AEW module but using the HC3 airframe whilst the Navy will have 8 spare HM1 cabs spare following the HM2 upgrade – which was the preferred solution for the STOVL carrier. There may well be discussions over Hawkeye with both the USN & France but i suspect they are just checking the viability as they know no monies are available in the short term till at least 2015.

[QUOTE=F-111buff26;1748472]
how much money could of been saved by SLEPing old Nimrod Mk2 until P-8 is ready or purchasing P-3s as an interim would surely have been cheaper than the MRA-4 debacle.
[QUOTE]

What P-8 !!! when the Nimrod replacement program was selected the USN had no intention of doing its P-3 replacement due to them expectiing the P-3s to soldier on in the post cold war environment. If there was a possibility of a joint program within the timeframe we needed for a Nimrod replacement then we would have done a joint program. By the time the USN realised its P3s were being used up faster than expected and that LM had cherry picked the better reserve examples for export that then then moved the P8 program ip the schedule by which time the UK was well into the Nimrod MRA4 program.

[QUOTE=wrightwing;1746472]
Mr. Beesley wasn’t paid to lie. QUOTE]

He doesnt have to he just has to talk up the positives and ignores the negatives, becuase as soon as he or any of the pilots on the program mention anything negative the press will jump on it, LM will will have a PR disaster, share prices will fall and Capitol Hill will be stat asking those difficult suggestions again. Net result those who don’t follow protocol will soon find their career ended – simples.