I believe they still are, I remember an article on the BBC not so long ago about the project being ongoing.
AHC: Make the F-35 a sucess story.
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I believe they still are, I remember an article on the BBC not so long ago about the project being ongoing.
Can I borrow that crystal ball of yours?
The same was said about manned fighters in the '50s and led for example to the cancellation of the Avro Arrow.
Drones are very good, but still very limited in the sort of operations they can be used for. It's going to take several decades at least to get a drone which can do everything - including air-to-air combat - a modern-day fighter-bomber can do.
The British are only talking of using UAVs in addition to manned fighterbombers such as the F-35B on their carriers or in their airforce which is not strange at all. Many navies operate UAV's on their ships - and not just on carriers -and have been doing so for quite a long time.
However there is no plan whatsoever to replace the F-35B with a drone within the next 30+ years. I'm not sure if that's within the lifetime of the older guys on this forum.
Apples and oranges...
A big disadvantage, especially in the days of the creditcrunch, is that drones have a very high lossrate and get replaced very quickly due to fast changes in UAV technology. For example the Dutch military is already replacing it's Sperwer UAV's for ScanEagles although the first are still only 5 years old at most. Quite a few were lost on operations in Afghanistan (effectively a low-intensity conflict with relatively low risks for air units) while I can't remember the last time the Dutch lost a manned fighter during operations abroad.
Can I borrow that crystal ball of yours?
The same was said about manned fighters in the '50s and led for example to the cancellation of the Avro Arrow.
The F35 will not be in service in 30 years.
The F35 will not be in service in 30 years.
LOL
Really hope it will, for a bunch of reasons, such as that the F-35 has managed to strangle every other 5th gen Western fighter design in it's cradle.
I think ultimately the issue boils down to drones vs remotely piloted aircraft. To be anything like reliable enough for a conventional conflict the aircraft have to be essentially autonomous given how vulnerable communications links are. Combine the difficulty in building a system that CAN do this with the reluctance to give a computer authority to release weapons and I really don't see manned aircraft going anywhere in the near term.
I think ultimately the issue boils down to drones vs remotely piloted aircraft. To be anything like reliable enough for a conventional conflict the aircraft have to be essentially autonomous given how vulnerable communications links are. Combine the difficulty in building a system that CAN do this with the reluctance to give a computer authority to release weapons and I really don't see manned aircraft going anywhere in the near term.
Personally I'd quite like to see what restoring wires and angled decks would cost. I suspect that the number is quite a bit lower than full CATOBAR, and while STOBAR isn't close to ideal is does free the ships up from being totally tied to the F-35. At a minimum there are reports floating around saying that the F-18 and Rafale are STOBAR capable, though I think just about any carrier fighter is able to get off a ramp unassisted, at least without payload.
That was the big mistake we had, by going STOVL it effectively tied the F-35 together with CVF, if you're going to build a 65,000 tonne flattop you might as well spend a bit more and make it CATOBAR. By deciding this in around 2000 the RN could have had over a decade to build up the skills needed by seconding personnel to the USN and even leasing some Legacy Hornets for pilot training. Instead when we tried switching in 2010 we discovered that most of the features needed to make the ship suitable had been cut in the design phase to save costs and the propulsion system wasn't capable of driving the ship fast enough for take offs with steam cats or of even producing enough steam necessitating the use of EMALS, causing another rise in cost.
Rant over.
Personally I'd quite like to see what restoring wires and angled decks would cost. I suspect that the number is quite a bit lower than full CATOBAR, and while STOBAR isn't close to ideal is does free the ships up from being totally tied to the F-35. At a minimum there are reports floating around saying that the F-18 and Rafale are STOBAR capable, though I think just about any carrier fighter is able to get off a ramp unassisted, at least without payload.