In the same paper where I saw that story, I saw another about another round of defense cuts and 20,000 people cut from the Army.

Not ‘another round’ – just the latest tranche of already announced defence cuts to be fair.

If Argentina wants it, I’m not sure the UK military could do much about it.

Has someone magicked up a proper airforce or anything resembling an amphibious capability for Argentina whilst i’ve not been watching?

If Argentina wants it, i’m not sure the Argentine military could do anything about it.

With all due respect to the UK and RN, I’d bet their A-4s are more effective than the current RN Harriers. :rolleyes::D

But fodder for Typhoons.

Face facts, argentinas military is stuck in the 1980’s because of the politicos fear of a military coup. They have about 16 airworthy fighters and just 1 or 2 airtankers available at any one time

On the BBC it says…

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the F35-C had hit development problems and it would be cheaper in the long term to order F35-B jump jets

So does he know something we don’t with regards to the development of the various versions? You would hope so, given that he said the F35C wouldn’t be available till 2023.

So it looks like the adaptable design that we were all sold with has turned out to be a load of claptrap.

I missed the statement and the replay isn’t up on the BBC yet, if his advisors were anything like competent he must have mentioned that in response to the undoubted shellacking he got from the opposition benches.

UK should settle with 35.000 ton class carrier with F-35B (and Merlins), without premature retirement of Harriers and Invincible class carriers.

Less of the drama, the steel is cheap and they are both already being built. They actually require less manpower than the Invincibles, It’s the cost of the planes that is the big problem. I wonder if the government have found out the real cost of regaining CATOBAR skills and changing the CVF’s design is going to be too much.

I actually believe a switch to ‘B’ would make sense for what the UK wants to do with the carriers as well as see both CVF in service.

CVF’s are actually being built with no problems at all, the mess of this program is entirely political with specs being changed constantly due to a change of government.

Unlikely ? Its impossible. Especially after Cameron-Sarko clash few months ago .

Nonsense #1 – you must have missed the joint UK/FR battle group announcement recently. It wont happen but it isn’t impossible.

Maybe the UK should get this farce over with and just unload the hulls to France and Brazil respectively, use the cash to further flesh out those capabilities it can actually afford.

Nonsense #2 – as if France or Brazil can afford it anymore than the UK ontop of current spending. The UK Government has recently called CVF the centrepiece of its future plans, indeed you’ll find the army is cut further to fund it.

It’s not like those gators are going anywhere without cover from Uncle Sam.

Nonsense #3, unless you don’t think the UK is capable of putting destroyers, frigates & SSN’s together in a group. In which case neither Brazil or France can either.

The change to CATOBAR has given them more fall back options though so imo CATOBAR was the right choice.

I think people are also forgetting the UK industrial payback with F35.

Governments official position

Both the National Audit
Office and Public Accounts Committee today published reports on the MOD’s
Carrier Strike capability. Several media sources have reported on inaccurate
claims that a full Carrier Strike capability will not be achieved until
2030.

This is not true. The more capable Carrier variant of the Joint Strike
Fighter fast jet will begin operating from our aircraft carrier from 2020, with
six UK jets available for operations. By 2023, this number will increase to 12
UK jets onboard and we will be able to work with our allies to increase that
number because of the interoperability that the Carrier variant Joint Strike
Fighter allows.

Try reading the link

If the USMC ever fly GR.9’s i’m a Dutchman.

hahaha the US sold a paper plane to the UK for billions, and bought a good number of perfectly useful planes for 50 million.

With friends like these the UK don’t need enemies.

Nic

They won’t fly them, they’ll use the spare parts. Is your PC worth anywhere near what you initially paid for it? Silly argument really.