Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Good, take away all the hardware associated with VTO&L and it might be a decent interceptor or fighter bomber. No way ican it carry a decent load of ordnance along with the VTO&L ****load.

[Peerie Maa]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Good, take away all the hardware associated with VTO&L and it might be a decent interceptor or fighter bomber. No way ican it carry a decent load of ordnance along with the VTO&L ****load.

Harrier did. You saying that Lockheed cannot improve on that aged aircraft? Have we been sold a very late pup?

[Canoez]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Good, take away all the hardware associated with VTO&L and it might be a decent interceptor or fighter bomber. No way ican it carry a decent load of ordnance along with the VTO&L ****load.

There are three variants that I know of. F-35A - standard take-off and configuation for Air Force use. F-35B V/STOL version intended for some carrier ops and US Marine Corps use (AV-8B replacement?). Finally there's the F-35C intended for carrier launch and retrieval.

The F-35B is the only one with the S/VTOL capability and the only one with the weight penalty. It loses about 1/3 of fuel capacity, IIRC to the lift fan hardware so range/loiter time is limited.

[skuthorp]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Harrier did. You saying that Lockheed cannot improve on that aged aircraft? Have we been sold a very late pup?

"The F-35B is the only one with the S/VTOL capability and the only one with the weight penalty. It loses about 1/3 of fuel capacity, IIRC to the lift fan hardware so range/loiter time is limited."

Yes.

[John of Phoenix]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Take a couple of those old battle wagons and convert them to clean and recycle the Pacific dump that's out there.

[Canoez]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

"The F-35B is the only one with the S/VTOL capability and the only one with the weight penalty. It loses about 1/3 of fuel capacity, IIRC to the lift fan hardware so range/loiter time is limited."

Yes.

Well, not quite. The Harrier had a combat range of 300 miles and a top speed of 660 mph with a capacity of 3200 pounds for fuel and munitions. The F-35B has a combat range of 505 miles and a top speed of 1200 mph with a larger fuel and munitions capacity, so it is an improvement on the Harrier. On top of that you get the advanced platform and stealth capabilities. Sure, it doesn't have the range and capacity of the F35A or C, but the operational characteristics are quite different to allow for the S/VTOL.

[John Meachen]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

How many Harriers could you build for the cost of one F35?

[Canoez]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

How many Harriers could you build for the cost of one F35?

Quite a few (Three!). However, you would be buying targets in today's battlespace if you were buying Harriers.

[James McMullen]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Missiles are cheap, and getting better and smarter all the time. Meanwhile, the limits on reaction time and high-G manoeuvres in current fighter jets are pegged to the limitations of the human cargo supervising the computer that runs its fly-by-wire systems. The human and his bulky, fragile life-support system is the weak link in the chain any more.

I don’t think the future of military aviation lies in manned vehicles any more than the future of the army lies in knights on horseback, no matter how pretty they look on parade.

[Canoez]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Missiles are cheap, and getting better and smarter all the time. Meanwhile, the limits on reaction time and high-G manoeuvres in current fighter jets are pegged to the limitations of the human cargo supervising the computer that runs its fly-by-wire systems. The human and his bulky, fragile life-support system is the weak link in the chain any more.

I don’t think the future of military aviation lies in manned vehicles any more than the future of the army lies in knights on horseback, no matter how pretty they look on parade.

No, missiles are not that cheap anymore.

Drones and unmanned vehicles will have a part in the battle space, but we’re not there yet.

[Paul Pless]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

you would be buying targets in today's battlespace if you were buying Harriers.

That depends upon who you are planning to go to war with, no?

The F35 in none of its variations is capable of close air support of ground troops fighting so called insurgents. It was initially sold to replace the A10, but it can't do what the A10 does, it can't absorb damage like the A10 can, and notably it is incapable of flying the number of sorties per day, week, month and year that the A10 can. The F35 is a maintenance hog.

[Canoez]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

True, but if you’re trying to make a Harrier fill the role of an F35 and compete with the platforms the F35 wa intended for, it likely will not do well.

[Art Haberland]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

great idea in a time of war.. but how many men and man hours would it take to out fit say, The USS New Jersey for such a role and how many men to keep her running? We would be better not scrapping the old carriers and refitting them

[skuthorp]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Yes, but if you are a budding Admiral or a dropped in Sec. of the Navy there's nothing like a battleship to impress the rubes……………….

[hawkeye54]

Re: Reactivate battleships as hybrid aircraft carriers? What!?!?

Slight thread drift - the US Navy had / has a Service Life Extension Program program on it's aircraft carriers ( to add 15 years to the original 30+ active service life ) -- it should be fairly straight-forward to apply it again to each of the carriers to alter them to a new type of mission.



Rick