F-35 Delayed Again

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth

Hi TLAM,

As for Korea, we were flying P-80s out of Japan during the Korean War. I don't see the problem with flying from Japan, it is a helluva lot shorter than OIF or OEF missions. And the notion that we need a VTOL VLO fighter to defeat the North Koreans is laughable, IMO.

The fighters that flew from Japan had very little endurance on station and were limited to bomber escort. The fighters that flew from south korea did most of the MiGCAP duities, and even they had limited time on station.

And they aren't going to be doing any assaulting from that Wasp in that config either. I really don't see any reason for an LHA to be in "sea control (with all of 20 VTOL airframes, giggle)". The Marines should stick to assaulting. They will never be able to "be their own air support" in the face of ANY real threat.

Sea Control loadout is for convoy operations, think of it as an escort carrier. Also changes to the airwing have no effect to my knolage on the loadout of LCACs and LCUs a Wasp can carry so it still can support landing operations with the LSDs they sail with. This is perfict for the small scale wars the US is fighting where we don't need a supercarrier's 90 plane airwing.

For one, realize that the justification for LHA type ships in a Guadalcanal type scenario is dead. Second, convince me that the USMC even should be in the fixed wing biz. As for what I think they should do, what if every fixed wing flying service bought into UCAV with a tailhook? Truely common basing. And real reach and power in numbers. We haven't ever "needed" a VTOL fighter other than to let the Marines pretend to have an airwing on their LHAs. We certainly don't need one now.

The Reason for the LHA and LHDs are to allow the US to send troops anywhere it the world. With out them we would be limited to a handfull of LSDs which would need to sail with a carrier group for airdefense and the US Army Airborne. The Falklands showed that having a limited number of carriers is a very bad thing. The LHA and LHD's flight deck is a kind of "Safety net" if a CVN is sunk we still have fight decks at sea that can launch fighters otherwise if the CVN is sunk and there are no other flight decks in the AO losing the conflict before another carrier can enter the area becomes a very real possablity. If the SKYHOOK system whent in to production having no LHA/LHDs wouldn't be that much of a problem since any container ship could be turned in to a ~60 plane VTOL carrier in a few days.

The reason the USMC needs fixed wing? Because their training is diffrent from the USN. They are trained to be CAS pilots where the USN is trained to be Strike pilots.