$6 billion = £4 billion
Seeing as QE class are to cost £4 billion each, both classes cost about the same except one is going to be far, far more capable than the other
hence 1 George Bush would be a saving of 4 billion over 2 QEs
Good job we are ending up with two ships at least one of which will be able operate a surged group of 36 or so 5th Generation JSF, then. Incidentally, which "half decent" air force or navy do you have in mind that could beat such a combination?
And you think a buy of 50 jets will be able to surge 36 to a combat zone?? I will be impressed if we are able to surge half that number. If 50 is the actual proposed buy, then at least 14 are going to be tied down by the OEU/OCU, which leaves probably around 15 - 20 for the front line, which means an even smaller
[email protected] I don't forsee a situation where we are ever going to deploy our entire front line F35 force all at once. Neither do I see the marines coming anywhere close to buying the number that they intended, so I wouldn't count on them making up the shortfall.
Up against such a sparsely defended ship, I would say there are a lot of countries that could get a good lick at blowing a few holes in the side of it...seeing as it doesn't have any armour and is going to be relying on rotary AEW. And even if they don't actually pose a threat in reality, their strength on paper may well be too much of a risk to deploy it close enough for the Bs to make any meaningful contribution to the fight.
Seeing as the government are now talking about further cuts to some departments, I wouldn't count on a post-2015 surge in defence spending to help us out a bit.