Re: Why go totally F-35?
Because for every aircraft type you need a whole roster of engineering and technical staff, with one of two types you obviously need far fewer staff, fewer spare parts, fewer support contracts, fewer test and development projects, few weapons integration programs.
The F35 is something of the holy grail for the cash strapped air forces of the world, yes it is a very expensive capital expenditure but the operation expenditure is relatively low compared with operating a mixed fleet.
Anyway, mixed fleet of what? In almost every conflict of the past 30 years, the air space has been contested with Russian Surface to Air gear. That has necessitated a stealth capability that the Super hornet does not have. Russian and Chinese air defences are getting better and are available for purchase by our usual adversaries so Super Hornet is not actually a logical choice as it cannot operate over heavily contested airspace, is old and is a generally worn out design which is why everybody is buying the f35.
Our carriers can only operate f35 anyway, nothing else will fly from them unless we buy some mv22 osprey which highly unlikely.
It would be lovely to enjoy access to a vast range
Biting the hand that feeds IT
