Originally Posted by
Asturias56
The problem is also one flagged many times on here - lack of enough support vessels to cover the Carriers AND the work they currently do
Quite how they haven't fixed "moving goods on and off the carriers" is one to marvel although - I'd assumed they'd buy a few Osprey's...............
If only those who "flagged" it actually understood what they were talking about......
As for moving goods on and off the carriers - that's a bit of a red herring. There is an existing interim solution which has been perfectly adequate and could be augmented with a couple of Chinooks if required. However, people are conflating this (properly called Maritime Intra Theatre Lift - MITL - a programme that has been in concept phase since the late noughties) with Carrier On-Board Delivery (something we've not had since the demise of the Gannet COD birds in the late 70s) and getting over-excited about it.
Crowsnest is now deep in its testing phase and should deliver, albeit late. The Fleet Solid Support ship competition looks like it'll restart in the new year and should deliver towards the end of the decade (assuming they can avoid too much politicking). The big one is the F35 (and associated squadron) numbers - for which one hopes the IR will recognise that 9 and 4 squadrons (inc OEUs etc) is too small a force structure in a more competitive era.