is 340 f35c (including usmcs planes) enough to operate 2 active squadrons per carrier, with attrition reserve etc? Usually PAI comprises at best some 70% of TAI, total ac inventory. Will 210 f35cs be enough for 8 active carriers? That is enough for barely 12 plane squadrons and not enough for 14 plane squadrons. And even with that, there wouldn’t be almost any additional f35s ready for extra squadrons. 2 sqds of f35 and 2 sqds of f18 may be peactime loadouts but in war we’re sure to see the need for a squadron or two extra per carrier, where needed.
12 plane squadrons would be enough to provide with perhaps 2 more such squadrons to be place wherever on demand. Of course, if one wants just 10 plane squadrons everything becomes much easier.
Or is all this a clear sign of USN getting permanently rid of some carriers, where in the future only 7 carriers would be ready for action within 1-3 months?
Even if so, USN will have a visibly higher ratio of f18s per carrier than with f35c, which makes the claim of 50/50 sqd (f18s and f35s) per carrier more dubious. Something doesnt add up.
The USN hasn’t operated 14-aircraft fighter/strike squadrons for years.
A Strike Fighter Squadron is usually made up of ten to twelve F/A-18 Hornets or F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
From the Navy Times article:
The Navy continues to plan for a fleet of 10 carrier air wings, with 44 strike fighters per wing, organized into 10- and 12-plane squadrons.
This will most likely be 2×10-plane F-35C squadrons and 2×12-plane F/A-18E/F squadrons (the extra Super Hornets are to provide “buddy tanking” services).
This means that 200 F-35Cs will be assigned to the 10 CVWs.
Of these, only 3-4 CVWs will be on deployed carriers, 3-4 will be assigned to carriers undergoing post-deployment pier-side maintenance or pre-deployment training/work-ups (and thus will be at their “home” land airfield most of the time) and 3 will be assigned to carriers undergoing more intensive maintenance (usually in drydock), and thus will themselves be undergoing training and maintenance cycles at their “home” airfield.
The 11th carrier is the one undergoing its “mid-life” 4-5 year-long Refueling and Complex Overhaul, and has no CVW assigned.
Five reserve squadrons will also fly strike fighters. Three Marine Reserve squadrons will fly the F-35B, one Navy Reserve squadron will operate the F-35C, and one other Navy Reserve squadron will fly single-seat F/A-18E Super Hornets.
The USN will continue to have some F/A-18s in the aggressor squadron (which is larger than a standard squadron).
Current USN plans are for the number of carriers to drop to 10 when CVN-65 decommissions in 2013, but to return to 11 when CVN-78 commissions in 2015 and remain at 11 until 2040, when it will drop back to 10 permanently.
I personally expect for Congress to order the retirements of the Nimitz class (CVN 68-77) to be sped up ~3-5 years, which will mean that CVN-68 will retire in 2015 rather than 2018, CVN-69 in 2018 rather than 2021, etc… thus keeping the number at 10 until 2040, when it would drop to 9.
This would mean that the number of CVWs would drop to 9, requiring 180 F-35C and 216 F/A-18E/F.
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