Originally Posted by
pr00ne
WEBF,
You say that a large element of aircraft carrier operations don’t involve fast jets.
Where on earth are these alternative aircraft to come from?
The RN has 30 Merlin HMA2’s, 25 Merlin HC4’s and 28 Wildcats.
Put all those on 1 RN carrier and the Navy has no more aircraft for any of it’s other ships. And another empty carrier.
Carriers of this size only make sense if you can embark aircraft in quantity.
With only 9 deployable Lightning’s they are a total waste of money.
When is the 3rd operational Lightning squadron to form, 2033?
And the Lighting’s aren’t just a SHAR replacement, they also replaced the 7 squadron Tornado GR4 force and the Harriers.
Cummings and co have a point about wasteful defence projects.
When they realise the facts re the deployable capability of the 2 carriers they must be first in the queue to be axed.
Yep, if pr00ne, myself and others on here can do a bit of simple math, you can bet your bottom dollar others will be doing the same.
The only thing that could save one of them is some US/UK joint basing tie up, but assuming the US dont actually fund the upkeep of the carriers then they can bitch and whinge, but ultimately any decision to scrap them remains ours. And if we say we'll buy a load more 'A's I doubt they'll care that much anyway.
Much like HS2, we'll start to see the writing on the wall once the bad news leaks and corridor briefings start up....