So with the decision now made, hopefully for the last time, what does this now mean for the RN aircrew flying Hornets in the USA. I can see a benefit for retaining experience and a fresh perspective of being on a large ship but where does the line move to now wrt relevance. Ship's Company need to retain a skill set and I'm sure we'll keep our Matelots on US big decks until QEC is ready for sea trials.
I think a new bun fight is about to begin all over again. Both services have a requirement for F-35 and numbers of jets will be scarce if the price continues to climb. I agree that the jets should be embarked if the carrier is off projecting power somewhere and that even in UK waters there should be a higher training requirement to keep CS well greased as it were. That said, now that the training burden for the aircrew to arrive/depart QEC isn't as high as it would have been for F-35C the embarkation tempo will be an interesting debate. Keen to hear the RN side.