Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
Spazsinbad,
Surely 48 to 60 F-35Bs would be enough to meet any deployment on either of the Carriers! I expected there was at least an outside chance that this would probably happen. Given the F-35 is also to replace the Tornado it surely isn't limiting the Royal Navy's ability to deploy the two carriers simultaneously if not all 138 aircraft are Bs!? It would make sense for the RN to get up of 60 Bs while 78+ As went to the RAF. Not making allowance for test, Evaluation and OCU aircraft and any attrition spares of course.
Beagle,
I did read that Sharkey is no fan of the F-35B either and thought the C was the best option, but any suggestion of limitation on the Navy, in terms of air power, to the benefit of the Light Blue will probably see Cdr Ward turn a darker shade than normal.
FB
I think a FE@R of 48 F35B aligned to carrier ops would be great. So how many B's would we need for that? I think that is the the issue. If you split the buy, we will have 2 squadrons on As and 2 of Bs. Now if we do need to surge the carrier force, I assume we would struggle. So is the extra performance really worth the constraint? (Wasn't the size of fleets the justification for canning SHAR and the Harrier?)