Delete comment from: Elements Of Power
The Harrier has been littering the world’s oceans with ordnance for decades.
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about Vertical Launch Bring Back weights with the F35, especially in the UK and the National Audit Office are basically risk and money experts, I guess the equivalent of your GAO.
The mainstream media reporting on the subject in the UK is woeful, they translate the level of uncertainty with this issue to ‘jets can’t land in hot weather’ type headlines, even the sensible and grown up papers.
Where VLBB is more important for the UK than I suppose it is for the USMC is because the UK, if operating alone, would not have the cover provided by USN and USMC fixed wing fast jets operating from CVN’s.
The UK’s climatic conditions for landing weights in vertical recovery are actually more stringent than the KPP. SRVL has been in development for some time, using QinetiQ’s VACC Harrier.
The first landing was in 2007
http://www.aviationtv.tv/news.cgi?n=595
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/lockheed-gets-funds-for-uk-f-35-landing-modification-348294/
One thing I do wonder if why the USMC don’t seem to be interested in the almost ‘free lunch’ provided by the Ski Jump
May 11, 2013, 1:59:23 PM