Originally Posted by
Evalu8ter
The RN doesn’t have a COD. The usual nonsense trotted out is that embarked CH47 or Merlin will do the MITL role. Not really a player with a decent payload out to representative Blue Water Ops ranges. Unless, of course, you intend to operate QEC as a large LPH in the Littoral.....Crows Nest is a very cobbled together capability, restricted in usefulness by radar horizon and RIP speeds. V22 would be significantly better in both roles but, it seems, the money has gone and it’s not made in Yeovil....
i'm somewhat struggling to imagine what a COD aircraft can bring to a carrier that a Chinook and a 40,000 ton RFA thats 2 miles away can't?
F-35B engine?
Chinook gearbox?
two dozen 500lb Paveways?
with a top range of 1000 miles or so, a CMV-22B isn't exactly blue water navy capability either - indeed i'd be interested to see the working that shows a UK operation in the last 40 years (or any other time period you can think of) where a Carrier group on operations could be supplied from land by a CMV-22B but not by Chinook...