Delete comment from: Elements Of Power
The Marines flew only a handful of sorties out of Dwyer, were again playing the 'we got here second!' game and now have the wonder of wonders as a writeoff of what, 8 jets? Due to insurgent action that they never would have faced back at Bagram or Kandahar.
The truth of onstation time is that nothing beats the drones, nothing. Because the drones are there /before/ the convoy or the troops go in, they see the tire burners and they watch the bushwackers moving into position and in trade for a 60,000 dollar hair, teeth and eyeballs experience (when something like Pyros or APKWS might be a bit more economical) they roust the routers before they can play Indian to the settlers.
All this as 5 times the endurance and 1/30th the CPFH of an F-35B makes the notion of manned fixed wing NTISR for 4-6hrs utterly ridiculous.
The F-35B is only going to be land based irregularly in deployment and will only bring detachments of 6-8 jets to the boat so long as they even pretend to have an RW heliborne assault capability. Insufficient to even escort the STOM birds in, let alone maintain a pair of FORCAPs and a DLI Ready 5.
Thus the entire thrust of the Marine argument to supplant carriers in areas that would otherwise be gapped if a blatant lie because when POTUS-next asks 'where are the Carriers' he will not be meaning the J3s as jump jet jeeps.
Of course 'helping the USN out' is really just Marine speak for "We read the tea leaves and it's time to become full time air exponents before the SWA funding dries up completely and ground warfighting becomes unfundable before Congress.'
Which would be mad genius but for Key West or I'm sure the USAr would be screaming for new Mohawks.
Key Point: in a Pacific Pivot that 850ft LHA-6 is going to look just like a 1,000ft Ford to whomever wants to chuck a mine, or an ASBM/ASCM or an SSK at the battlegroup.
It's going to cost just as much if not more to operate (more frequent trips to the fleet trains for POL and Ammo plus no-nuke = more fuel oil) than a CVN and the 25 jets they plan on putting aboard at who knows what cost to the /real/ Marine ready mission of quick SPOD capture and Embassy rescue with Rotary Wings is not going to mean a
thing.
Because until the USMC fesses up to needing another 50-100 billion, _minimum_ for pressurization, COD, Tanking and AEW&C variants for Osprey to support their little toy jet, they won't have even a third world carrier capability (and I mean that, the Indian Vikrant with MiG-35 and LCA will have better reach.
Nov 30, 2013, 8:01:36 AM
Posted to F35B Agitprop ala Sweetman