Reply To: Battle of the Bulge – December 16, 1944

[oriskany 60789xp 1]

Well, @zorg – those carriers without aircraft are a partially “our” fault here in the US.  The only aircraft those carriers will be able to launch are the new JSF-35 Lightning II to my knowledge.  It’s the only way any navy besides the US Navy (with their new Gerald Ford class nuclear carriers) will be able to put supersonic, air-superiority fighters and strike aircraft into enemy airspace, i.e., what a “real” carrier is for.

So the Queen Elizabeth class (I think that’s the name) was built for the JSF-35.  There was a lot of drama on both sides of the water, though.  Americans felt like we were giving away fighter planes so the UK could “pretend to have a real navy again” – while people in the UK felt the US was taking advantage of the UK, giving them some toys in exchange for two “free” carriers that will do more or less what we ask them to do anyway.

Added to that, the JSF-35 turned out (surprise, surprise) to be very expensive.  So for a while the project was cancelled, which really screwed over the Royal Navy who were building these two carriers and now had no aircraft to base on them.

But last I read, the JSF-35 is back on track, so hopefully those QEs will have proper strike / fighter groups before long.