WW,
I agree with you that in a perfect world, where we had money for conventional carrier platforms in numbers, the E-2D would be a perfect AEW asset. The British reality now is that we can't put a FW dedicated AEW platform on QEC so it HAS to be either novel (UAS) or RW. CROWSNEST is, I'm sure, a fantastic development in the world of advanced AEW so whether this can be integrated into a UAS is another thing. Either host is slow to get to max range and would require careful planning but yes, it does offer the necessary endurance required of a traditional AEW feed.
However, I am in complete agreement with A.Y who obviously knows his proverbial ****; the F-35 sensor suite in many, many ways is significantly upgraded from F-22, is better than Growler and the potential of its DL for data-passing air picture AND 'surpic' amongst not just other F-35 but also the surface fleet and CAOC is a step beyond. This shouldn't be sniffed at just because F-35 loiter is inferior to multi-engined types, RW or UAS AEW radar hosts - a pair of F-35 in an AEW 'grinder' is a significant long range sensor and reactive killer scout for any carrier regardless. It isn't the best solution by any means but even if we did have a conventional deck coming our way, and even if we did procure E-2D (as an example), F-35C would without doubt be a significant contributor to the AEW piece; it is one of its many strengths as A.Y rightly mentions.
Last edited by ICBM; 19th Jun 2012 at 10:17.