PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - No cats and flaps ...... back to F35B?
View Single Post
Old 23rd Jun 2012, 07:09
  #1219 (permalink)  
Ivor Nydia
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You're absolutely correct that there's more to it than just aircrew currency & quals, but I still don't see it as a major issue. Military folks are quite capable of just getting on and making things work when required.

For example, the USMC had never dreamed of operating 24 Harriers off an LHD's deck before 2003. No one in the Gator Navy had ever operated the deck with much more than 6 jets before, but both the USS Bataan and the Bonhomme Richard figured it out and made it happen during sustained combat ops for Iraqi Freedom.

Flexibility is the mantra of all modern armed forces so I just don't buy into the notion that the only possible way the UK can have a capability to operate aircraft from a carrier is to have a force that significantly biases its training regime to that end. The carrier is an undeniably unforgiving environment, but so too are the snow-covered runways of Norway & Canada or all the world's hot & high airfields or, dare I suggest it but it is a capability that the -B has, expeditionary airfields etc.

For me, pilots should have a good understanding of the issues relevant to operating from any surface that they are required to, but the overwhelming majority of their time has to be spent figuring out how to break other peoples' stuff. They shouldn't be condemned to a life on the ocean waves just because it warms the cockles of some folks in the RN who are still bitter that the RAF moved Australia in the 60s.
Ivor Nydia is offline