AW&ST:
U.S. Marines Could Play Major Role In U.K. Carrier Operations
Senior officers in both the U.S. Marine Corps and British Royal Navy agree that Marine Corps Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) will operate regularly from the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The question is how many fighters and when, and it appears to be a sensitive issue due to the impending release of the U.K.’s Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR).
One option under study is to attach a Marine F-35B squadron full-time to the U.K. carrier force, alongside the two planned British squadrons, according to a source close to the U.S. Navy aviation community. While senior officers say it is much too early to focus on any one joint-force structure, they acknowledge many options are being considered, and the Marines specifically identify the British ships as potential bases in their most recent aviation plan.............
The Marines have the opposite problem to the U.K.: They plan to acquire 353 F-35Bs, but the only U.S. Navy decks available to them in the 2020s will be 11 LHD Wasp- and LHA America-class ships that normally carry six fighters each. In 2013, Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, then-Marine Corps commandant for aviation, said the Corps’ F-35s would fly short-takeoff, vertical-landing (Stovl) sorties on “a small percentage” of missions. As a result, the Marines appear eager to share the new British carriers as a way of building and sustaining shipboard experience.
The need for Marine assets to make full use of the carriers will depend on several factors, including how many aircraft U.K. squadrons can generate sustainably. Royal Navy officers are unwilling to state how many aircraft will be at sea at any time, saying only that the ships will have the “largest practical” air wing.......
On Blount’s chart, the carrier strike F-35 force—the largest in any of the mixes—is described as “U.K. plus allied mix.” Blount says this is nothing unusual. “We expect to plug-and-play with coalition forces—this is the way wars are fought today,” Blount tells Aviation Week. “We expect the Marines to be aboard the Queen Elizabeth class, to get the most bang for the buck.”
Blount says it is too soon to expect firm details of the Marines’ involvement. “I talk to [Marine deputy commandant for aviation, Lt. Gen. Jon] Davis all the time. He’s interested in our carriers, and I’m interested in Wasps. But given where this capability is, in terms of development, there’s no memorandum of understanding, or anything like that.”..........