Tango18A said:
There are 3 models of the F35, the Royal navy was looking at the Carrier Version which is a more costly AC. The variant we are buying is the plain F35 with no extra maritime bells and whistles.
Not quite correct Tango: The UK was purchasing the "Marines" VSTOL variant, not the "Carrier" one developed for the US Navy. The QE's were NOT to be conventional aircraft carriers at first, rather STOVL with a ramp, but could be transformed into a conventional at a later stage of their long life depending on the next generation of fighter after the F-35's.
That's why I wrote the post above calling the move interesting.
While the British CV's are by no means safe from their defence review, the steel has been purchased and work on both of them is proceeding, with the first section (bow) of the QE herself laid down and completed ready for assembly to section 2. Switching to a conventional at this stage means redrafting a lot of the engineering drawings: You need at the very least to: redesign the flight deck to remove the jump ramp, add catapults, provide an angled landing strip, add the arrester wire system, add the landing mirrors or any other landing guidance system you wish. Below decks, you have to add whatever equipment you need to provide for the catapults and arresting systems: Will it be steam? You need a boiler room and the smoke stack to dispose of the fumes. Should it be Electromagnetic, you will need extra electrical power generation.
On another plane, we should put the British decision in perspective: The British F-35's were not going to be the RAF's backbone for fighter/attack aircraft defending Britain. This is done with the Tornadoes and Eurofighters. Their F-35's were solely for the replacement of their Harriers, mostly to serve on the carriers. Once you incorporate the plusses/minusses of replacing STOVL F-35's with CATOBAR F-18 E/F's, looking at weapons load at launch, range, sea state you can operate in, capacity of your control plane (An EH-101 helicopter/V-22 Osprey for the F-35's versus the latest E-2 Hawkeye fully loaded backing up the Super-Hornets), possibility of carrying tanker planes on the aircraft carrier, etc., I think that there would be no significant gain or loss in the British move.
We are not in the same boat, as our F-35's are to become the backbone of our Air Force's capacity to defend our airspace and provide air cover to our operations worldwide.
