Originally Posted by
bobward
Having read most of the book, there are a couple of things i don't understand.
First, after the Falklands War, why didn't the RN 'management' publicise their successes?
Second, with the new carriers, they are committed to F35B only. They cannot operate any other type of fixed wing air. Why?
Numerous reasons, including the fact that studies (including of Falklands operations) indicated STOVL aircraft could operate in more sea states/weather conditions than their conventional cousins; cost of catapult and arrestor systems, bith in the initial decsion and in the reversion to STOVL following Cameron's change to CATOBAR in 2010, the fact that F-35 was originally intended as the harrier replacement (and managed to morph into the Tornado replacement)
Third, if the MoD were hell-bent on F35B, why not have built Invincible class ships, instead of QE2 class? Surely they could have had many more of the smaller vessels, allowing
more control of sea lanes etc, than they could with a single QE2 class?
The QE class are deisgned to replace both the Invincibles and HMS ocean, so they need to be big enough to have helo ops and troops on board as well as sustain fixed wing operations