You can be how you wish - my parade is a long way from your rain. Which is a good thing. All I know is what is in the video and what is in the newspaper report. Did you read that?
The Oz F-35Bs on Oz LHDs has been in the drawer since the beginning. For sure the ADF needs to get onboard with it. I'm not going to whinge about the past. It is very interesting to me that a concept of having a 'poor man fleet defence', particularly to help defend the 'valuable asset' LHD or two, with a small group of F-35Bs during transit of open ocean, or around archipelagos for example, is a good one. Back in 1971-72 I was part of the small VF-805 Squadron onboard HMAS Melbourne (then a specialised ASW carrier with Wessex 31Bs and S2Es) for the purpose described. The Oz precedent is there. With the extra capability for networking that will be present in this new environment, the synergy for the ship and air assets is not bad.
Then the BLEEDin' Moaning RAAF CRABS can f off ashore when they are no longer needed. And we ain't talking about storming the beaches. The Bees are onboard for a short time as described then off to join up with their RAAF support maties ashore.
For sure plans change. First there was going to be only a 100 strong F-35A force. Then 2 doz Supers came along - then a doz Growlers - now there may be some Bees to mix it up again.
If you know anything about RAN history then you will recall that back in the early 1960s the RAN was going to scrap fixed wing by the mid 1960s to have a helo only ASW HMAS Melbourne. Then 'konfrontasi' emerged and minds were changed to 'back to the future' with the mix of aircraft described above, by 1969 (after a lengthy refit for MELBOURNE to cope with the new aircraft). Initially there were only ten Skyhawks with only 8 A4Gs available to be used as described. Later that same mix was doubled for more flexibility and mission changes onboard.
Some F-35Bs onboard are way better than NO F-35Bs onboard our LHDs, as required. And that is stressed again - when required. Mostly they will be ashore in crabland. So the crabs need to know what to do with them. I guess hop skipping and jumping around up north would be one answer. But I do not care about that. Not up to me chief.
______________________________
This is the closest to my idea (and probably goes beyond what I had in mind as stated above) best to read the two part of the article in total, the excerpt is just for the fleet defence concept above, so to speak, and again I stress - not for storming a defended beach as such - not sure if this thread has the 'valuable asset' description of the LHD (for Spain).
F-35B JSF for the ADF—a viable option in the 2015 White Paper? (Part 2) 30 May 2014 Malcolm Davis
http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/f-3...-paper-part-2/
"......It’s in countering the advantages bestowed by strategic geography on an adversary practising anti-access operations where a small force of F-35Bs deployed on LHDs might play a significant role. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s key advantages are purported to be stealth, integrated avionics and an ability to network with off-board sensors—all of which contribute to the pilot in the F-35 having an information advantage over an opponent, whether that opponent is in the air, on land or on the sea. If the F-35B is seen as a key node in an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) network that contributes towards an expeditionary force gaining a knowledge advantage at the tactical level, then a force of F-35Bs on board LHDs will add to the joint task force survivability. Information gathered by the sensor systems can be exploited by the F-35B to attack detected targets, or the F-35B can act as a sensor in a ‘sensor to shooter’ link, with the ‘shooter’ being a naval vessel or a submarine. Furthermore, the F-35B can exploit austere bases on land—known as forward arming and refuelling points (FARPs)—to operate in support of naval task forces in archipelagic waters, thus easing operational challenges and risks for the LHDs....
...Only a small number could be carried onboard the LHDs, and at the expense of other important capabilities. But an F-35B acquisition could offer the ADF a more flexible way to undertake the Principal Tasks, even in the face of growing threats from an adversary’s anti-access ability."
Malcolm Davis is assistant professor in International Relations and post-doctoral research fellow in China-Western Relations at Bond University.
_________________
Description from Navantia PDF brochure at location below.
"...The ship has been conceived as a “protected unit” in the sense that her defence is charged specifically to other units that may be submarine, surface or airborne and is in all cases a “
valuable unit” because of its nature and the cargo she carries on board. For this reason the weapons on board are limited to four 20 mm cannons that provide moderate close-in self defence. She has a reserve of space and weight so that self-defence weapons may be integrated in a later phase: MK-38 assemblies (automatic system with remote control from the CIC) for asymmetric defence and 2 SEA RAM assemblies for anti-missile defence.
On a Command and Control level, the ship should integrate all the domestic and NATO systems in a wide set of classified networks that confer the capability to act as command ship at brigade level in amphibious operations and even as the naval HQ HRF command ship...."
This URL keeps breaking so here it is in full for copy/paste without the leading 'h': {so add it for working}
ttp://www.navantia.es/ckfinder/userfiles/files/sala_pr/folleto%20LHD_marzo_para%20navantia_ingles.pdf (2.3Mb)
This one may work or it may be broken:
http://www.navantia.es/ckfinder/user...tia_ingles.pdf