Nah... give them Phantoms, there are still a few left in the boneyard here in Tucson.
Posted on 07/11/2016 10:45:05 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Britain has big plans for its F-35s, but whether they are affordable remains a big question. Minister for defense procurement Philip Dunne claimed last week that, apart from the U.S., the UK “will be the only other nation that can project power.” But to meet that ambition, the defense budget must by the early 2020s cover the cost of buying and operating two new 70,000-ton aircraft carriers, and at least two squadrons of F-35Bs—the most expensive version of the stealth jet to buy and fly.
Moreover, those F-35s are priced in dollars, against which the British pound has just sunk to a new low. Asked about that during a media briefing at RIAT (the Royal International Air Tattoo show, last week), Dunne said that “we’re well-hedged against the dollar in the short term, and who knows what will happen in the long term.”
He said that the UK would be accelerating its buy, to have 24 aircraft in service with two squadrons by 2023. So far, the UK has bought five aircraft for test and development, all now delivered, and 14 production aircraft to come over the next four years. Last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review theoretically reconfirmed a UK commitment to eventually acquire 138 F-35s.
The justification for the UK’s primary role in the F-35 program—the only “Tier One” partner—remains industrial as well military. “Skills and jobs are being sustained across the nation,” Dunne said. Cliff Robson, the senior vice-president for F-35 at BAE Systems, said that 1,700 company employees were now working on the program, with several thousand more in the supply chain. “At its peak, about 25,000 people will be employed, and £1 billion of revenue will be earned,” he said. Another 10-12,000 people are directly employed by BAE Systems, Babcock and Thales in building the two aircraft carriers.
Dunne was also joined at the briefing by three senior British military officers who described that timetable for achieving ‘carrier strike’ capability. Air Cdre Linc Taylor, the “senior responsible owner” for the F-35 at RAF Air Command, said that by the end of this year the UK will have five F-35Bs based in the U.S. at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, where the first operational unit—No. 617 Squadron—is being formed. Although this has a Royal Air Force “number plate,” it includes Royal Navy personnel.
Three more British F-35s are now at Edwards AFB, California, where No. 17 Squadron works in the test and evaluation role as part of a Joint Operational Test Team (JOTT). In both locations, British activities are tightly integrated with those of the U.S. services. In particular, there is a particularly close relationship with the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), which declared its own initial operational capability (IOC) on the F-35B on July 31 last year. British and American pilots fly each other’s aircraft at Beaufort, where 617 Squadron is “nested’” within VMFAT-501, the USMC training squadron.
It will be mid-2018 before 617 Squadron flies its aircraft from the U.S. to the UK F-35 base at RAF Marham. Construction of dedicated logistics and training centers, plus a new secondary runway and three hardened concrete pads for STOVL training, is already underway there. “In order to train pilots in the highest levels of the F-35’s capability, and because of the lack of airspace in the UK, 50 percent of our pilot training will be synthetic,” said Air Cdre Harvey Smyth, the RAF Lightning II Force Commander. IOC for 617 Squadron in a land-based strike role is set for the end of 2018–the RAF is retiring the last of its four Marham-based Tornado strike squadrons during the following year.
Carriers Get Ready
Meanwhile, the first new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will leave its construction base at Rosyth dockyard and head to sea for the first time in March 2017. The 700 sailors that operate her have already joined, said the ship’s commanding officer, Cdr Jerry Kyd. Following contractor trials, the ship will enter its permanent home at Portsmouth Dockyard in June 2017. It will embark its helicopter force to achieve an IOC by autumn 2017. In the third quarter of 2018 it will embark F-35s for the first time. The second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is following 18 months behind the QEII, and will be in service in 2019, Kyd said.
An Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) for the F-35 will form at Marham in mid-2019. Carrier trials will continue that year, but it won’t be until late 2020 before 617 Squadron is operationally qualified to go to sea. Kyd said that HMS Queen Elizabeth will make its first long-range deployment in 2021. But it won’t be until mid-late 2023 that British F-35s achieve full operating capability (FOC), said Smyth. By that time, No. 617 will have split into two squadrons. The second will have a Royal Navy number plate—No. 809.
Air Cdre Taylor noted that learning how to fly and maintain a fifth-generation low-observable fighter is a key challenge. But so is adapting to the “incredible” sensor fusion that the F-35 offers. There is much work to be done to operationally integrate the stealth jets with the RAF’s fourth-generation force of Eurofighter Typhoons, he added. “They can offset each others’ strengths and weaknesses,” said Air Cdre Smyth.
God, they batter hope so. they built two aircraft carriers just for this plane.
Well, if they can’t figure out how to afford the F-35, maybe they can bring back a squadron or two of Seafires to fly from those fancy new CVs.
All they have to do is scrap socialism and get a good manufacturing sector again....
Nah... give them Phantoms, there are still a few left in the boneyard here in Tucson.
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