9. F-35, America's lemon
8. Over at OoL
From Associate Professor of History Sal Mercogliano of Campbell University (www.campbell.edu), former merchant mariner and professor of Maritime Industry Policy at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (www.usmma.edu) discusses the latest from the Suez and MV Ever Given ... via Distant Relative.
7. Pause for thought
The F-35 does indeed seem to be a disaster, and has been recognisably so for some time.
ReplyDeleteBut then almost everything the US Navy has bought in recent years has been disastrous too.
And what isn't a disaster is probably so obsolete that it qualifies simply as a target.
I'll bet the Chinese are well aware of all this.
They only get away with these white elephants because they know they are never going to have to use them to fight an opponent. The UK has of course bought a few and is sending its pride and join on a fly the flag mission to the Far East in May this year, lockdown five and six not withstanding, which will have be fully stocked with white elephants.
ReplyDeleteBit daft really as it is a multi racial multi national fleet of ships as the Royal Navy can no longer put a fleet of its own together.
In other defence news BAE the submarine builder which has managed to double the length of time it takes to build the damn things than its predecessor VSEL did has announced that the future 'nooklear deterrent; Dreadnought class will be run by 'fly by wire' technology and the Royal Navy is retiring its entire fleet of manned minesweepers mine hunters in favour of automated 'systems' computers strapped into boats powered by solar panels and lithiun ion batteries most likely.
And ships can now choose their own gender. No longer can the most macho ships afloat be pussified with the 'she' label unless they choose to identify as such.
Such is the mad mad world. Fun isn't it.
Interesting snippet (imho) @ 15:44 re G Maxwell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X18BXB2_IVE
ReplyDeleteSteve
ReplyDelete9. F-35, America's lemon
A significant cut in the number on order for the RAF? Sixth Generation BAE 'Tempest' fighter under development? Someone's losing confidence in it. We should have gone for the 'C' variant, and since our new carriers were designed with the F-35 in mind we should have left the decks flat with EMALS.