p00ne
I was asking about the exceptional and dire circumstance of a Cold War crisis and Transition To War.
At the time of the Argentine surrender in 1982 we had sixteen Sea Harriers aboard HMS Hermes and twelve about Invincible. When Illustrious sailed to relieve her she carried ten. It is not too much of a stretch of the imagination that if the balloon went up in the NATO theatre then the carriers would have more jets embarked than in peacetime. I have seen nothing to confirm that bit I assume that the plans existed. I have seen plans elsewhere for the reinforcement of our forces in Germany or UK based ones during Transition To War, and every man and his dog was earmarked for a wartime role. It does not take a lot of imagine to guess that 800 and 801 would have been augmented, with instructors sent to sea, student Pilots near the end of their course accelerated through the last bit, and so on.
This, like the augmentation during the Falklands War and the deployment of Harrier GR3 aboard HMS Hermes was only possible because they were VSTOL aircraft. The requirements to maintain currency for carrier landing would make it impossible with conventional carrier aircraft. Moving to more recent times, in the mid 1990s I read a Navy News article that the RN had a requirement for something like fifty Sea Harrier pilots - I assume this number was based on the need for wartime augmentation in included Sea Jet drivers on instructional duties - including basic flying, acting as OOW or PWO at sea, staff duties, and so on. The seagoing non flying roles would have been frontline posts, unlike instructional or staff ones.
At the back of Wings On My Sleeve by Captain Eric Brown, there is an old article on the CVA-01 carriers, entitled Phantom Carrier. As well as detailing innovations such as reducing the angle of the deck to a mere one degree to reduce the workload for the pilot lining up in approach and having to correct (there are parallels with the QE Class and SRVL) he mentions that it would be possible for the carriers to be reinforced in a crisis by RAF P1127s (ie what became Harrier).
Naval Strike Wing came after the three Sea Harrier squadrons had been disbanded, and the Sea Harrier retired. Typhoon was intended to replace the Jaguar as well as the Tornado F3, and to a degree the Tornado GR4. It was the UK that insisted that Typhoon had to have a ground attack capability.
I share your concerns over the very slow build up of the F-35B Lightning Force.
Last edited by WE Branch Fanatic; 27th Jun 2022 at 18:47.