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I see no indication that that ship can only operate the F35B. It's designed for VSTOL aircraft, so it doesn't have catapults like American carriers. This isn'

by magduf 7y ago

I see no indication that that ship can only operate the F35B. It's designed for VSTOL aircraft, so it doesn't have catapults like American carriers. This isn't new for the UK: they previously had carriers that only used the Harrier, another VSTOL jet. This new ship can surely use the Harrier, but of course the Harrier is pretty old at this point compared to the F35B, but if they needed to, they could go back to it. Or if someone built a different VSTOL jet, they could use that too. Maybe they could also buy some V-22s from the US. Building a carrier that only operates VSTOL aircraft is not an unreasonable thing to do. The US does it too, with their "amphibious assault ships" run by the Marines: these are basically mini aircraft carriers that are just like this ship in your link, and operate only VSTOL (F35B, V-22 Osprey) aircraft and helicopters. If it's good enough for the US Marines with their ships like this one[1], why is it a problem for the Brits? [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America-class_amphibious_assault_ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America-class_amphibious_assau...

nradov 7y ago
There is actually no way to go back to the Harrier. Production was shut down years ago, the industrial base is long gone, and the UK sold off everything they had. There are no other V/STOL tactical aircraft in the development pipeline. The F-35B will be the only available choice for decades to come.
liability 7y ago
AFAIK the ramp precludes anything other than rotary wing AEW, or at least it precludes the E-2 in particular. That seems like a bigger deal than which models of jump jet can be used. An E-2 can be flown an hour or two longer but twice as high as a Merlin HM2. At 4.5 km up the horizon is 241 km away. At 10.6 km it's 367 km. Translated to area covered up to the horizon, that's 18,000 km^2 vs 42,000 km^2. So because it has a ramp, the HMS Queen Elizabeth has less than half the AEW coverage.
arethuza 7y ago
The US has loads of carriers though - the UK will only have two and to have a direct link between the design of the carrier and a particular design of aircraft seems particularly risky.
- magduf 7y ago
  1) There's nothing stopping BAE or Eurofighter or whoever from making their own VSTOL jet. 2) A carrier with catapults is a much, much larger and more expensive ship.

by magduf 7y ago

nradov 7y ago

There is actually no way to go back to the Harrier. Production was shut down years ago, the industrial base is long gone, and the UK sold off everything they had. There are no other V/STOL tactical aircraft in the development pipeline. The F-35B will be the only available choice for decades to come.

liability 7y ago

AFAIK the ramp precludes anything other than rotary wing AEW, or at least it precludes the E-2 in particular. That seems like a bigger deal than which models of jump jet can be used. An E-2 can be flown an hour or two longer but twice as high as a Merlin HM2. At 4.5 km up the horizon is 241 km away. At 10.6 km it's 367 km. Translated to area covered up to the horizon, that's 18,000 km^2 vs 42,000 km^2. So because it has a ramp, the HMS Queen Elizabeth has less than half the AEW coverage.

arethuza 7y ago

The US has loads of carriers though - the UK will only have two and to have a direct link between the design of the carrier and a particular design of aircraft seems particularly risky.

magduf 7y ago
1) There's nothing stopping BAE or Eurofighter or whoever from making their own VSTOL jet. 2) A carrier with catapults is a much, much larger and more expensive ship.