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The UK has done the costings and VTOL is cheaper. You need a much more expensive training pipeline to get pilots who can do arrestor wire landings and they nee
by rjsw 6y ago
The UK has done the costings and VTOL is cheaper.
You need a much more expensive training pipeline to get pilots who can do arrestor wire landings and they need to keep practicing it, doing this also results in more accidents which result in the loss of the aircraft.
The VTOL system also allows a country to more easily switch pilots from being based on land to using the carrier.
- jabl 6y ago> The UK has done the costings and VTOL is cheaper. Sure, but that decision was made before the full trainwreckage of the F-35 was clear. In hindsight, with what we now know of the cost of the program, perhaps the decision would have swung the other way.
- rjsw 6y agoI don't think the F-35B is seen as a trainwreck by the UK.