Originally Posted by ORAC
If the carrier programme was handled the same way the QE and POW would be sold to India et al and a 3rd, smaller, single CVH would be ordered to keep the shipyards busy....
Would that be CV (Harrier) or CV (Helicopter)?
peter we
Good point. Apart from the UK, how many other nations are buying F-35B?
Originally Posted by GK121
Except for being on the edge of bankruptcy, Spain had said that they would eventually buy F-35B when its AV-8B+s run out of flight hours. Of course, at the current rate that is sometime in the 2030s.
Maybe they (and/or Italy) could lend the UK some for a few years (see comments below). By the way, the USMC is planning to possibly run the AV8B until 2025 or beyond, and 16 of the ex UK GR9s are being kept intact.
Recently,
Navy News reports that whilst the decommissioned HMS
Ark Royal is to be towed away as scrap, Ministers have expressed an interest in preserving HMS
Illustrious when she leaves service. This strikes me as very unusual - since when have they been interesting in preserving ship before (except those in extended readiness).
So are Ministers trying to deflect criticism, or soften us up for
Illustrious being put in extended readiness or having her service extended (which may require a refit)? Or other policy changes?
My view is that not having a major gap between
Illustrious and
Queen Elizabeth would be a good way of preserving the legacy? This may mean either extending the service life of the former, or speeding up work on the latter (her original in service date was 2014 - and remember that
Illustrious was rushed into service a year early in 1982 so that she could replace
Invincible in the South Atlantic post conflict).
Additionally, changing policy so that we do not have an entire decade of no naval fixed wing flying, with no carrier capability and no jets embarked on RN decks to give experience to the entire ship's company (particularly as the future of RN fixed wing aviation is STOVL - ie F-35B), would do a lot to secure the legacy of the "Harrier carriers". Perhaps see my post
here - from the Decision to axe Harrier is "Bonkers" thread.
To be honest, I really do not know what to make of defence policy these days. The politicians both try to make loud noises regarding
Syria and
Iran, and pretend that the world has not changed since SDSR. Indeed,
Illustrious is deploying to
somewhere hot soon...
Then there is the issue of the forthcoming (when?) announcement on the future of the Reserve forces. For example, the Royal Naval Reserve is having is numbers increased by 50%, but nobody is certain what for? Fewer RN and RFA ships means less ships needing force protection, logistic support, communications, etc. So what will these people do?
How are we meant to recruit them without knowing what it is we are recruiting them for? The FR20 paper recommended an enlarged RNR Air Branch, and there has been (tri-service) talk of Reservists taking over capabilities that are not in use right now but that need to be maintained, but how do part timers make up for the loss of ships and aircraft that have been sold or scrapped?
PS Why all this bickering over carrier aircraft more commonly one or two engines?