Originally Posted by hval
Twenty four aircraft are better than twelve aircraft. Sixteen is better than twelve.
Also any are better than none, which is what SDSR left us with. To refer to a post
here:
From MOD news recently:
Royal Navy unveils carrier training facility
To keep up with the state-of-the-art technology on board sailors and engineers will be trained in a £1m building at HMS Collingwood in Fareham, Hampshire, which has been set out in the same way as an operations room on board the new carrier.
The personnel will be trained on the new mission system which links all the combat, communications and visual surveillance systems together by a fibre-optic network - these are usually separate on warships, allowing for a much more integrated way of working.
So Warfare Branch and Weapon Engineering types will be training for CVF, but not fixed wing pilots or deck crews?
I still think that the Government
could make this into a success story, by
leasing a few AV8Bs from the US (also worth considering other options and issues mentioned on this thread), and possibly either extending the life of HMS
Illustrious post 2014, and/or speeding up the build and entry into service of HMS
Queen Elizabeth. Additionally a radar equipped jet would help make up for the loss of ISTAR capability when Sea King ASaCs is retired before a replacement system is ready.
Things
have changed since October 2010, not only the switch back to F35B for CVF and the need to prepare for a STOVL future, but also the world has changed - for the worse.
The Harrier is the only type of aircraft (until F35B comes along) that can do STOVL shipborne operations, a capability I believe we need NOW. The US Marine Corps intend to carry on operating the AV8B into the next decade - and until 2025 or later if necessary.
Back on
17 December 2010, vecvechookattack wrote:
Originally Posted by vvha
We still need FDO's and flight deck crews. HMS Illustrious will still be embarking Fixed wing aircraft upto and until 2014.
Why is this not happening? Would embarking foreign Harriers be too embarrassing for the Government?
On this last note, I understand that RN deck personnel have been stateside where they have proved that they still are capable of working with fixed wing aircraft. Although it is worth considering the issue of whether this will still be the case in five or so years time if these skills are not practised?
Additionally the RN has the problem of building up the cadre of fixed wing Pilots - they cannot all go stateside, and there is a need for them to increase numbers, train new ones, and no become to separated from the rest of the Navy.
Because of these last two points,
other topics discussed on the same thread are worth looking at.