The primary fighter aircraft the Royal Navy is proposing to equip their two new aircraft carriers with is the STOL version of the F-35.
With doubling of the J-35 price per aircraft it is going be increasingly difficult for the British Government to justify the cost of this aircraft. Even the Americans are hiccuping at the huge cost increases for this aircraft.
Would it not be better if the RN were to equip their carriers with the Rafale which is available and are combat proven or, there have also been suggestions put forward for a marinised version of the available and combat proven Typhoon.
One or other of these two aircraft would, I suggest, be more easily justified taking into account the very difficult financial position the British Government find itself in
I'm not sure of the unit price of the Rafale or of a marinised Typhoon but I would suggest it is considerably than that of the F-35.
I think we should be going for the Rafale rather than the F-35(The Typhoon is out of the running due to how much that would cost). We could purchase the Rafales as part of an agreement for us to build a third aircraft carrier which would go to the French! Building three would cut the unit costs of the carriers and provide the French with the second one they want and we would be able to keep the two we want. As far as i am concerned us having two carriers with Rafales and the French having two with Rafales makes perfect sense.
That would even open possibilities for joint ops,
with similar equipment, deployment of joint forces with
a RAF squadron on the French CVF and vice-versa.
The rub seems to be on the French side as i gathered
that our politicians or the DGA ( procurement office )
apparently said no to the current CVF design.
Good day all.
If the British Government say we will buy Rafales i am sure the French will be right up for it! Entente formidable!
I note the Danish are quitting the F-35 program and in all probability to be followed by the Dutch. The main reason would seem to be cost of the F-35 which has doubled from around $US40 million per aircraft to around $US93 million per aircraft. This leaves the USAF, US Marines, USN, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Canada, Norway (who are shaky) as paid up participants in the initial development program with Israel (who only want the airframe and engine with DIY electronics) and Singapore taking an interest in the aircraft.
With the unit cost increasing by such a degree means some of these nations are now reviewing their future requirements with regard to the purchase of the F-35. Even the UK with its strong "buy American" ethos is having second thoughts about its proposed F-35 purchase as is also the USN and, the USAF to who is having pressure applied to buy the F-15
I note the design of the new UK CVF carriers are being initially setup for the STOVL F-35 but can be modified to operate as either as a CATOBAR or a STOBAR carrier.
If the UK has to make the hard decision and forgo the F-35 due to the cost the only real alternatives are to convert the carriers to CATOBAR configuration and operate the F-18 Super Hornet or the Rafale, with the Rafale by virtue of more compact design having the inside running.
I note the F-35 development program is getting bogged down with a significant number of the program KPI's having not been meet to date.
Seen as the UK dug its heels in with regard to the A400M cost escalation and stated "it wanted the aircraft but not any cost" is the UK going to apply the same rational to the F-35 cost escalation or will it meekly accept the price rise because the aircraft is American and they don't buy French at any cost?