Just been reading some old political 'jaw, jaw' and I see that on the 30th November 2011 the US Senate Armed Services Committee approved the exchange of the third British F-35B for the F-35C. The airframe which was an early build was designated for the US Navy but instead the Americans kindly allowed it to be transferred across to the UK.
The UK government agreed to cover the costs of our F-35B being modified to the specifications required by the US Marine Corps????
This begs a few questions, firstly how much money, time and of course 'face' was wasted on this 'W' turn (W = two U's)
Did we exchange this 'B' way back in November? Rome was not built in a day and it could be that this agreement even though 'agreed' was actually torn up and we kept this aircraft.
Did we pay any money for any aircraft to be converted to Marine Corps specifications even though I am guessing we might not have made this exchange?? We seem to be giving the Marine Corps our 'Crown Jewels, so why not give them some money as well?
what are the differences between the Marine Corps 35B and the UK aircraft?
There is talk of our Fleet Air Arm pilots undergoing all their training in the USA... Even all their fixed wing training and are any current Navy pilots undergoing LSO training on the large super carriers and if so should we now be looking at putting our Navy pilots onto Marine carriers operating the harrier? Did we once operate this aircraft?
We are all hearing dates when we should have an operational carrier but I find it interesting to read the words of Rear Admiral Hussain the Controller of the Navy and Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) in charge of the carrier programme confirm how the Royal Navy expects to be fully operational by 2031. It could be sooner or it might be later... Do we believe it will be sooner?
When asked to comment about each carrier only being at sea for 200 days per year, he stated
it was an operational imperative for each carrier would stay at sea for 300 days a year Words are copied from his meeting with the Public Accounts Committee Meeting. My thoughts here are.... Is someone is being confused with 'sea time' as opposed to operational time? (question) for Milo that is 600 days per year for both carriers
I don't see how we could take sailors away from the rest of the fleet for this manning, but if we can, then we can.