Again all that is true V22 good for picket carriers with F35B
For flat deck 100,000 EMALS C2 Greyhound
You are not I think seeing the big picture here.
The US Navy has operating on it's Big Flat tops today,
- Marine FA18C/D (F18 is how i will refer to them)
- FA18E/F/ EA18G
- C2
- E2
- MH60
5 types, Now the Marines and Navy both plan to phase out the Last of the F18 for F35C variants
Then you have the little flat tops
- AV8B ( to be replaced by F35B),
- MV22 ( replacing CH46),
- UH1,
- Ah1,
- CH53( to be replaced by CH53K.
5 types again.
Now lets Take a step back to the early 80's
The big carrier air wing was,
- F14 replacing F4
- F18 also replacing F4
- A7 (if not replaced by F18)
- A6 and KA6 and EA6B
- E2C
- SH3H Sea King
- S3A
- EA3B
- RA5C
- C2A
8-9 types. So what happened? we move the 1990's
- F14
- F18
- A6E and KA6D
- E2C
- EA6B
- S3 and ES3A
- SH60 and HH60
- C2R
8 types a reduction of one type
The Navy started reducing the types in the Air wing why? because keeping so many types of aircraft in the Aviation arm of the carrier meant having to store parts and engines for such a huge mix. The NAvy wanted to establish a streamlined logistics plan for it's Air wing so they off loaded mission that off loading first took the form of the FA18E/F Super hornet.
The FA18E/F didn't just replace the F18, it replaced the F14, the A6E, the KA6D the ES3A, with modifications to the EA18G it replaced the EA6B. The MH60 farther phased down the SH60 and HH60 to one variant and took the mission of the S3. The Navy didn't really care that it was not perfectly suited for the new missions, All that they wanted was good enough.
Keeping C2R in the system means keeping a unique type in the mix that has only limited commonality to any other type. Now the same could be said for E2D but the importance and mission type of the E2D is of such a nature that it's mission critical and cannot be matched right now with any other type. Where as C2 is not, even if C2 is perfect, Perfect is the enemy of good enough.
V22 can go faster, longer and quicker than any helo that does not mean fixed wing
No it does not, but That's not the point. If they were really really worried about cargo capacity and speed well.
Just like V22 AWACS will never beat E2 V22 COD never beats C2
Both have potential which is why C2 should continue for EMALS keep V-22 for secondary role
And apologies I should be saying CMV-22B and EV-22 but easier to call them V-22
The point of the V22 buy was to remove one uncommon, support type from the carrier air wing by standardizing on a common airframe with the Marine airwing. It will remove the need to keep the older parts and training from the C2R which was based on E2C not the E2D, it eliminate the need to keep systems to support the C2 like the seating pallet in favor of the fold down seats of the V22.
another thing is the declared need of an Osprey for transporting an F-35 engine: it probably is just a spin, as ones F-35s become truly operational (I don't mean public stunts with a ship full of contractors), a decade
Less than a decade given the deployment to Japan last year I am betting F35B will be on the deck of Wasp or America Class Ships by the middle of 2019 in numbers.
or decades from now, only squared away machines (not the LRIP stuff) will be taken on board as ALIS may even work by then
Jura Carriers have hanger decks not to sideline fighters and store them but to repair and maintain them If you sideline a Fighter you sideline that pilot and reduce the mission capacity of the Air wing. The ALIS is to tell the maintainers what is happening in the fighter, it's a Check engine soon light that is supposed to tell you exactly what is wrong. The Air wing maintainers then come in and do the repairs.
OK and if an engine got damaged anyway, they'd just leave that aircraft in a hangar (again, in real world situations, not with journalists around)
now one of the nice things about the F35 Engine so far is it's modular nature. If the engine does have a issue then you can replace the trouble spot but keep what works rather then having to replace the whole thing. Problem with the fans, call in a replacement Fan module.
Whoever comes calling.
An Aircraft Carrier is a massive statement of American military might, any nation who has a bone to pick with the US would love to send one to the bottom of Davy Jones locker. It would be a instant propaganda win and masive gut shot to the US.
The Russians loved to Shadow US carrier groups in the Cold war with Subs as if it came to war they might have a chance to nail a Carrier. I have no doubt that the Chinese in the Pacific try to do the same.
S3 Viking was a jet powered Sub hunter that replaced the S2 Tracker, It was in essence a baby P3 Orion that traded turboprops for jets and could take off from a carrier deck. They also had a variant for ELINT the ES3 Shadow, a Small CODs plane the US3 and even a tested version fitted with a Radar pod that did a jb akin to the JSTARS. When the Navy retired it, the traded off those missions to mostly the P3 Orion now retiring for P8 Poseidon, but those are land based, and the SH60 now MH60 which has shorter range.
A V22 fitted with a dipping sonar and radar could drop Torpedos to attack enemy subs either like above from hard point on the side or from the cargo hold via a system akin to the gunslinger a Ramp mounted launcher system on the Marine Harvest hawk, MC130W and AC130J
A podded Radar could be deployed to allow the V22 to serve as a Carrier borne ISR/C2 platform as envisioned below or similarly fitted to serve as a ELINT and SIGNT platform. of course some of these could also be done by the MQ25 concept
