Originally Posted by
Lyneham Lad
Strikingly illogical of Sir Max to use the capital cost of both the RN carriers against that of just one of the USN’s eleven carriers to make an unfavourable comparison of their consumption of each nation’s defence budget. What about the other ten US carriers?
Then there are the smaller ‘flat tops’ the US Navy has at its disposal. LHAs of the eleven planned total America class are already operating F-35Bs as well as, it seems, the eight LHDs of the Wasp class. That’s all in addition to full-fat nuclear carriers like the one in the Max Hastings article.
All of a sudden, the US investment in carrier air and its share of their defence budget appears much greater than he is prepared to admit, doesn’t it?
Behold USS America Sailing With A Whopping 13 F-35Bs Embarked Aboard
Originally Posted by Tyler Rogoway 14 Oct 2019
USS America (LHA-6) is executing "routine operations" in the eastern Pacific, but her complement of aircraft is anything but. Deployed aboard are no less than 13
F-35Bs, and possibly even more stowed away in her hangar deck. This is the closest we've seen the USMC and the "Gator Navy" come to executing the
notional "Lightning Carrier" concept, which would see the amphibious assault ships packed with nearly two dozen F-35Bs in the full-on fixed-wing aircraft carrier role. You can read all about this idea in this past feature of ours. It even eclipses the USS Wasp's (LHD-1) cruise to the
South China Sea last Spring when it was
spotted with ten F-35Bs aboard...