Really nice link Rob. Although I suspect that the lack of Co-operative Engagement Capability has a big impact on Dragon's ability to operate as an integrated asset in the carrier's AAW escort team if things went hot. Leaving CEC off the Type 45 is little short of criminal.
I wouldn't say *criminal* exactly, criminal in my mind would be leaving off capabilities which make the ship unable to function in a primary role. The Type 45's are already extremely capable ships in AAW, I agree CEC should be funded ASAP, but let's not act like the Type 45 as is is just armed with nerf darts
I worry about the usefulness of our carriers as well unless there are incremental improvements (where practical) to their capabilities.
You previously posted that the planned armament for the F35b's would initially be limited to AMRAAM, ASRAAM and Paveway.
That leaves them with no ARM for SEAD missions, no ASM for ASuW missions and no stand off land attack capability. That means our aircraft either can't undertake missions against adversaries with sea or land based SAM capability, we have to rely on US or French carrier aircraft to establish battlespace dominance first or we undertake the mission acknowledging that it will involve considerably more risk to the aircraft.
Yup, those are the initial weapons when she reaches IOC, with weapons planned for integration being SPEAR 3, Storm Shadow & Brimstone 2 in the future. It's the UK's MO, look at the enhancement programs for Tiffy and what she can carry in about 5 years or so.
With regards to the ARM how much of an issue is it *really*? Static positions have a fundamental obvious weakness, and future weapons like SPEAR 3 are designed for relatively stand off targeting at moving vehicles. Seriously, i'd like someone in the know to explain it to me. But if it IS a problem then we'd need a ARM then.
Stand off land attack capability isn't *neccesarily* a problem for the F35B due to the nature of the "stand off" part. The idea being that the launch vehicle is far enough away from danger to experience too much of a threat, Storm Shadow has a range >250km. Factor in that if we needed a target destroyed within enemy territory and the stand off feature not being adequate; Astute with TLAM can deal with it
To my mind we must try to incrementally improve the range of weapons the F35 can carry or we have made a huge investment in ships and aircraft and them severely limited their capability.
The choice of the F35b has been debated to death and is a done deal but it does limit the range of missions both because the aircraft has a shorter range that the alternatives and because the carrier will not have an air to air refueling capability. Will the ability to only operate V/STOL also impact on our ability to use drones going forward as well?
The limitations of only operating 12 aircraft and the difficulties of surging that number have also been discussed previously.
I laugh when the range issue is brought up
It's larger than the Harriers, larger than the SHornet. But one INCREDIBLY important reminder you need if you're calling the range of the B a serious problem is why the USN needs the range of the C. They're pivoting to the Pacific, they need as much range as they can get because of the geography of the area. We won't need it, our theatres will most probably be in the Med and the Gulf if we're going hot, so it's not a problem. It's my same philosophy for UCAV's, the USN wants carrier-bourne UCAVs because of the sheer size of the Pacific and it's more operationally flexible (and more important) to have them sea based rather than land based ( I hope i've got that right ). I'd rather see the RAF get a land based strike UCAV working and operational before we push money into anything like it for a carrier myself.
In a nutshell, for us the F35B's range is absolutely no problem at all. Since the Invincible class came in I don't think the RN had carrier-bourne AAR either, so why is it so crucial now?
The 12 carrier figure is the
standard peacetime complement of fast jets, larger than any peacetime fixed wing component on any CVS. If we get involved in somewhere like Libya then we'll ferry cabs down to her where they can join the ship, it's the whole point of the Tailored Air Group ethos behind her; you want more fixed wing? Send 'em aboard! More Chinooks? Go Ahead! The point being is that if we get into a scenario where we really have to go at it, the fixed wing complement will surge, I can promise you that.
The AEW solution also inhibits us. The limited range, endurance and speed of the helicopter platform means it will only really be useful for providing an air picture over the carrier and the littoral. If you wanted to put the AEW nearer to/over the opposition air space that would not be practical with a helicopter. Therefore trying to get air dominance over opposition territory anywhere away from the littoral would be difficult due to now being able to provide on-station AEW for your fighters.
I dunno, having a Merlin with a pod which consists of 2 radars from an F35 back to back seems pretty good to me. Certainly (in terms of VTOL AEW) the absolute prime in the world.
At the moment it seems to me that we are spending a lot of money on a carrier capability that will be fine against third world adversaries but against any opposition with a half decent air force or SAM network we would need to either be in the second wave after the US and French had kicked in the door or be tasked with providing fleet air defence to protect the ships whilst others contested the air battle space away from the littoral coordinated by their fixed wing AEW assets.
So us with the 5th generation VLO aircraft capable carrier capability (available 24/7/365 I might add) would have to sit back to the French?
The F35B gives us the opportunity to be active in operations from day 1, that's a fact. I find it hard to imagine a conflict which would leave the Rafale to be perfectly survivable but the F35B to be swatted from the sky . . .
One other incredibly important detail is that the ASRAAM/AMRAAM/PWIV is when the jet reaches IOC, in other words when the RAF get hold of the first examples they know those will work from the jet. The UK wants SPEAR 3/Storm Shadow/Brimstone 2 integrated, it's just stumping up the money for it and right now that sort of money is going onto the Typhoon and rightly so.