"The amphibious assault ship
Bonhomme Richard, which burned through the night while in port in San Diego, was at the tail end of two years of upgrades supporting the
integration of the F-35B, according to Navy documents.
That means the Navy will now have fewer options to deploy the next-generation fighter in the Pacific.
The Navy awarded the $219 million modernization contract to General Dynamics, National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. in 2018, which had options for up to $250 million. Bonhomme Richard is one of four large-deck amphibs to have received the upgrades. The
Boxer was announced earlier this year as the fifth big-deck to get the upgrades.
Experts said the loss of Bonhomme Richard, whether a total loss or just lost for extensive repairs, deals a significant blow to the Navy’s plans to have F-35Bs continually deployed in the Pacific. And with Monday’s announcement that the United States had
formally rejected China’s claims about the South China Sea, any accompanying boost in naval presence could be slowed by the fire.
The Navy’s deployment model is based on having permanent forward presence in vital regions, such as the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East. To accomplish that, the service needs enough ships to support one forward on deployment, one in an elevated status of readiness to surge in an emergency, one in maintenance and one in pre-deployment workups.
In other words, in an ideal world the Navy would have at least four ships to have one of them always on deployment. But with longer overhauls, such as the F-35B upgrades, it might require five ships to make one forward."
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What chance that after the USMC do their workup training later this year on HMS Queen Elizabeth - or after the CSG 21 deployment - and then start lobbying their corner on future requirements - that the USA gives the UK an offer too good to refuse for HMS Prince of Wales - buy, loan or exchange for a bunch of "free" F-35s !