Aircraft Carriers III
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Something finally happened....lots of photos soon to arrive...
Attachments
-
E1viB1SWUAAcNIQ.jpg
Its been a long time coming...
Royal Navy images, on their twitter and elsewhere
Feel free to delete this if its too off topic but:
I think these images are a prime example of everything thats wrong with the Royal Navy now. Theres two 65,000 ton carriers there. One doesnt have any aircraft on it, and most of the ones on the other are USMC F-35s, not UK aircraft. Its just so sad to look at.
I think these images are a prime example of everything thats wrong with the Royal Navy now. Theres two 65,000 ton carriers there. One doesnt have any aircraft on it, and most of the ones on the other are USMC F-35s, not UK aircraft. Its just so sad to look at.
UK reduced the number of F35s recently so they only have enough jets for one carrier at a time.
Which is a bit puzzling since they also plan to deploy one carrier long term in Asia
Neither of those statements is true though...
The RN will only be passing through the Indo Pacific area intermittently. They'll be a OPV based out there, but little else. A CSG might pass through every 3 or so years.
As to F-35, the MoD still says that it intends to purchase 138 over 'the lifetime of the programme'. No-one has believed that for 10 years though, in fact most believed that the buy would be restricted to the initial 48 and then attrition replacements for those along the way. The recent statement however appears to indicate that purchasing more is going to happen in the mid to late 20's. I suspect up to c60 a/c. 70 would be better and 90 perfect. But right now I'd take a definite 60...
There has to be jets on land for training and spares/under maintenance. If you move all the F35s to the carriers none will be left for training pilots.
Also they issued statements indicating interest to deploy a carrier on a long term basis in Middle East or Indo Pac. Whether that materializes is another question
One doesn't have any aircraft as its still on trials...its out at sea for its FOST review. This is where DC and all ships systems are put under strain by a dedicated training team. No aircraft are carried for that.
As for the QE. Yes 10 of the F-35B are USMC and 8 are UK. But its not much to worry about. There are 18 F-35B in the UK already with another 6 to be delivered this year, 8 in 2022 and 13 between 2023-25. So in a couple of years there will be plenty...which also ties in exactly when the Carriers Full Operational Capability is supposed to be delivered according to the plan. Besides until Block IV of F-35 is delivered the only weapons available for F-35B in UK service are Asraam, Amraam C-5/D and Paveway IV. So its very much a basic capability at present. The good stuff comes with Block IV for the UK (Asraam CSP, Meteor, Spear and Paveway Penetrator).