With the current government, they’ll probably just cancel the contract and tell stranded mariners they’re on their own.

The F-35C is perfectly suited to perform the Fleet Defense Role. Especially, with its Stealth, Sensor Fusion, and Long Range.;)

The Navy vehemently disagrees which is why it replacing the super hornet with a larger twin engine twin seat design and reserving the F-35C for life as a bomb truck.

Why would UK buy Rafales? Cant they make a carrier version of their Typhoon?

Rafale was designed with carriers in mind from the outset. First, you’d end up paying as much as a raptor per copy. Second, there are a laundry list of things that make the typhoon:
-Forward landing gear retracts backwards. Would require substantial reinforcing. Most carrier designs have the forward landing gear retracting forward.
-Air intakes on the bottom taking digestion of FOD and seawater.
-low mounted wing.
-airframe not designed for strengthening. Modifying a land based jet usually ends up weighing more.
-forward canards decrease deck visibility. Hard to launch when you can’t see the shooter.
Correct these problems and you end up with something that looks suspiciously like the Rafale. Considering that they came off the same from the same set of notes, carrier suitability is the main reason for the different design.

The Typhoon is not a great design for navalisation. You can find more about it here:

http://navy-matters.beedall.com/jca1-1.htm

Basically we studied it for STOBAR and decided against it.

STOBAR is the option when you have no other option. Worst of both worlds.

Ideally, the P-8 or the A319MPA if the French and Germans fund it to replace their MPAs. Under the current government though I think the UK is out of the MPA game. They are willing to have capability gaps if it fits their political doctrine of cutting costs.

If you’re using EMALS to launch it, there is no justification for F-35B. You’re better off with F-35C. The point of F-35B is that it can fly off ships which do not have catapults & arrestor gear. A carrier with EMALS but no arrestor gear is also pointless. You’ve put in the more complicated & expensive gear, why not go the whole hog?

If you’re talking the full 90m system for the ford, then yes. However electromagnetic catapults can be tailored to purpose.

An F-35B with an F-35C wing is yet another purposeless thing. What can it do that a C can’t? It’s carrying useless weight both for what the B does & what the C does.

Additional fuel/range, better control on a faster SVRL, and with folding wings it would take up less space on a flight deck.

Text accompanying that link:

Families on board … !?!? Could this explain the apparently inadequate responses discussed above? What where those doing on board in the first place? What was the ship doing, having families on board?

Indian equivalent to a tiger cruise.

You can’t get the C slow enough to do a SRVL, it would stall far before hand.

Interesting to see that so many of you* believe that there is nothing between all-out war against a capable adversary and no combat at all!

The main value for the USMC of capability of the AV-8B and its replacement the F-35B to operate from LHA/LHD vessels lies in the area you* guys are so carefully avoiding.

That area is what I brought up in my last post # 385… which is being studiously ignored.

And here we are with another such occurrence brewing… and the Marines are there without a CVN… just LHD-3 and LPD-15: Marines Ready for Egypt Rescue Mission

For proper protection of any such mission, and for a small quick strike to take out terrorists or the like, 4-6 F-35B would be far preferable than a handful of AH-1Zs.

But feel free to continue to ignore the more-frequent missions of the USMC in favor of your* “all-out or nothing” discussion… and I’ll just ignore you* the way you* are ignoring reality.

* meaning those who refuse to accept that the US Marines do things other than all-out war and non-combat humanitarian missions

If we start launching combat operations over Egyptian soil, we’re going to need a lot more than that 4-6 jets.