Originally Posted by Engines
The F-35B is not 'significantly compromised'.
Engines, you won’t find any disagreement from me on 99% of your excellent post. The B is a magnificent piece of engineering, in particular the flight control system that does so much to reduce the training burden associated with carrier ops. I take my hat off to those who turned the requirements into reality.
My 1% disagreement is quoted above and ultimately stems from the CONOPS* and the requirements, not the engineering. The B carries less payload, less far and less quickly than the other variants. Speaking as an aviator, that is a significant compromise.
Now, I recognise that the carrier strike concept is about more than just the aviation which occurs at the end of it, but here’s the thing. The UK is unique among B operators in not having any As or Cs
and having no plans to acquire any, at least not publicly (and there are those who would have us believe that we’ll have 69 Bs to take us to QEC mid-life and then another 69 as fatigue and attrition replacements).
By settling exclusively for the B, our entire 5th generation fleet bears the compromises made to enable a basing option which is useful for much of the time, but not so useful in the scenario which for the UK ultimately justifies the huge expense of 5th generation capabilities: Article V operations on NATO’s eastern flank. Sure, the carrier group can be employed on blue water ops with the Bs on air defence duties, but is that really what we acquired them for? There lies the significance of the compromise, in my estimation at least.
[* Digression: my issue with the CONOPS is the question of tanker support, firstly when the carrier is forced to stand off in an environment where 5th generation capabilities are needed, and secondly when exploiting the carrier group’s primary advantage of being able to operate free from the constraints of land basing rights. Neither aspect has been adequately addressed at any stage of the UK programme, and both aspects are aggravated by the B’s shorter range.]