Cameron's F-35 U-turn: BAE Systems still calls the shots at No 10

Over the horizon

The key to understanding this decision (or any government decision, come to that) is that by the time this carrier comes into service and it's shiny new aircraft arrive - either horizontally or vertically - there will have been an election. No government has the ability or will to look further ahead than the next ballot, as they'll either be out of power or have new and more interesting problems to screw up solve. By that time, or even further ahead when/if an enemy emerges that needs the might of an aircraft carrier's planes to defeat it, nobody will remember who decided what (and those who did decide will all be on the boards of various defence companies, anyway) and how to bring them to book.

I expect this decision was not driven by strategic thinking, but by expediency: JFDI or CYA or both. As it is, the chances of a government official being able to outwit a company that's dedicated its existence to squeezing as much money as possible out of it is slight. Even if such a brainiac politician was in the right place at the right time, the defence suppliers only have to wait until the next election for that person to be reshuffled and replaced by someone more "amenable".

juggling costs

its ok , any budget overrun can be balanced by supplying ground troops armour made of egg cartons.

Anyone have a clue what an American carrier costs these days? Would it be cheaper to ask for them to add another to the production line than buy this megafiasco?

Meanwhile, in a sensible world down the other leg of the trousers of time...

I write some alternative history fiction about a country which doesn't make dumb procurement mistakes. The AEW is carried by a Zeppelin. The 'planes have great big radial piston engines. The only thing that stops the planned carriers being sunk by that outfit would be the Type 45 destroyer. (And there were carriers at Midway which launched more aircraft than a Type 45 has missiles.)

This is so obviously wrong that even the bad guys in my stories wouldn't be this dumb. (If they were that dumb, the story would be boring.)

At least the RAF still flies Spitfires.

so how many Billions of £££ for 3 HMS OCEAN's ???

why the F##k piss 6 billion + on CRAP helocopter carriers ???

personnaly i'd tell the yanks to piss off and come back in 30 years when the F35 is actually airworthy and safe to fly, unlike the F22 currently and the alpha version of the F35 as it currently stands.

It took them 40 years to get the OSPREY flying properly (its still liable to scorch the foundations of the helipad and fall out of the sky on occasion, much like the flybywire Chinooks (how much was wasted on that stupid sci-fi upgrade)))

Sake the lot of them.

the next government will undoubtedly be Labour, as 'none on the above' wont be added to the election forms till after 2020...

maybe when the get in they might junk the idiotik decisions that were pushed on the condemned by the yanks, looking to offload all the over the top sprialing costs that they are facing with all these blue sky projects (which will all be scrapped when the USA goes bancrupt)

oh and for the cost they could have just bought 3 Nimitz Class super carriers right off the shelf...

BAE =

BAE = Billions Above Estimate

How many elections to go before these carriers are built and equipped?, somehow I doubt if they will ever be operational with or without catapults before someone scraps them?

A lot to agree with in this article

However, I don't think the B variant is necessarily a bad choice. A worse/less effective choice? Most definitely but I suspect the aircraft itself could still be very effective in the roles required of it. There is a real issue that affects all aircraft carriers though and that is anti ship ballistic missiles made by bad governments and sold to other friendly bad governments. Unless effective ways of dealing with these are found, I think the modern, large aIrcraft carrier will join the battleship.