Marines F-35 reset

[spazsinbad]

Link for the 'ready deploy 2024' FORD story: Carrier Ford May Not Deploy Until 2024, 3rd Weapons Elevator Certified
https://news.usni.org/2019/10/22/carrie ... -certified

Some recent USN/USMC warfighting concepts wargaming info: https://news.usni.org/2019/10/23/navy-m ... e-concepts

[sferrin]

What are they going to do w it for another 5 years?

No kidding. They should be able to build brand new elevators from the ore up in 5 friggin' years.

[spazsinbad]

What are they going to do w it for another 5 years?

No kidding. They should be able to build brand new elevators from the ore up in 5 friggin' years.

IF ONLY it was just about weapon elevators but it ain't:

"...Ford’s originally planned deployment date was 2018, but that timeline has continued to slip due largely to developmental delays in the new technologies that were included aboard the first-in-class nuclear aircraft carrier. The delays are also in part due to the Department of Defense’s decision for Ford to undergo full-ship shock trials before its first deployment.

The news of the later deployment date came during a Tuesday House Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing in an exchange between Naval Sea Systems Command head Vice Adm. Tom Moore and Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.). “The original deployment was 2018 and best estimates we’re looking at 2024?” Luria asked Moore during the hearing.

“I think we’ll beat that,” Moore said. “We’re going to pull back as far to the left as we can, but I think we’re going to beat that.”..." https://news.usni.org/2019/10/22/carrie ... -certified

[quicksilver]

“IF ONLY it was just about weapon elevators but it ain't:“

I’m w/ya spaz but they were off the target deploy date by 6 years. Ouch.

Ya gotta appreciate the gent they sent to testify. When questioned about the 2024 date, he tells ‘em, ‘I think we’re going to beat that...’. Reminded me of the Monty Python sketch where the grievously wounded Knight declares, “...its only a flesh wound.”

[spazsinbad]

https://media.tenor.com/images/024d350b ... /tenor.gif



It's just a Flesh Wound! [short&sweet] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtywcyyno0

[spazsinbad]

Secretary: Navy Discussing Next-Gen Carrier Concepts, Including ‘Lightning Carrier’
24 Oct 2019 Richard R. Burgess

"WASHINGTON — The secretary of the U.S. Navy said the sea service is looking ahead to determine what the follow-on aircraft carrier design will look like, even as work continues to get the new USS Gerald R. Ford out to regular operations at sea. “With the [recent] two-carrier buy, what will the next carrier look like? We’re having discussions on that as we speak, and we will see what happens,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said, speaking Oct. 23 at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “I think we actually whiteboard this thing. What will it look like in 10 to 15 years? Is it a floating platform for electrically charged unmanned aircraft? I don’t know.”

Spencer said the Navy is looking at the “lightning carrier” concept, deploying 20 F-35B Lightning II strike fighters on an amphibious assault ship. Recently the USS America operated in the eastern Pacific Ocean with 13 F-35Bs of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 122, the Corps’ most recently equipped F-35B squadron. Earlier this year, USS Wasp operated for a short period with 10 F-35Bs of VMFA-121 on board. “My cost performance there is tremendous,” Spencer said. “Does it have the same punch? No, it doesn’t. But it has a very interesting sting to it.” …

...During the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan operated as a “Harrier carrier,” equipped with two full squadrons of AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft, which the F-35B is replacing, rather than the usual six aircraft.

The concept might get a serious workout in a couple of years. “In 2021, you will see a Marine Corps F-35B squadron on the Queen Elizabeth, which we are very excited about,” Spencer said, speaking of the plan to operate a Marine Corps F-35B squadron alongside a British F-35B squadron on the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier."

Source: https://seapowermagazine.org/secretary- ... g-carrier/

The Navy in an era of great power competition [23 Oct 2019 84 min] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mxXrz0ZSMQ

[steve2267]

It is interesting to note that the USMC seems to be headed towards increased dispersion, whilst the USN seems to be staying with (stuck with, mired in?) concentrated forces centered around the large CVN carrier battle group. I do not doubt that the USN's studies to date have shown cost savings of a 100k CV (Nimitz/Ford class) over a 60-65k CV (Midway class), I just have to hope that no institutional bias set in and that they correctly accounted for the opportunity costs in a war if a CVN were to be sunk. The flipside of that cost coin is that it may very well be easier (and cheaper) to defend a single platform vs two, three, maybe even four platforms.

With the advent of the F-35, it would seem that huge Alpha strikes with 20-30-40 planes may not be required to hit a target. The tactical flexibility, then, of approaching an enemy from two, three, or even four different directions would seem to create enormous defensive problems for your opponent.

It's fine, I guess, to save $B by putting all your eggs in one basket (CVN)... best not let that basket sink, though.

[quicksilver]

How might this alter your outlook about concentration of forces?

https://news.usni.org/2018/12/19/navy-p ... -end-fight

[spazsinbad]

Just to keep the USMC interested: https://seapowermagazine.org/great-powe ... akers-say/

[quicksilver]

And another — https://news.usni.org/2019/10/23/navy-m ... e-concepts

[spazsinbad]

All 6 East Coast Carriers In Dock, Not Deployed: Hill Asks Why
28 Oct 2019 Paul McLeary

"...While the US might be in a carrier crunch, it won’t last forever. The Ford will deploy in a few years, followed closely by the second in the Ford-class, the USS John F. Kennedy. To help patch any holes there might be in future carrier coverage and provide more ships that carry aircraft, the Navy and Marine Corps are rapidly warming to the concept of a “lightning carrier” concept, designed to pack amphibious ships with Marine Corps’ F-35Bs and sail them to the hotspots to cover places the big decks aren’t.

For example, the USS America (not a carrier to the Navy) was recently photographed sailing in the Pacific with 13 F-35s on its deck, something that the services want to do more of as the so-called Gator Navy reinforces more decks to handle the fifth generation fighter. The Marines and Navy are working on a new strategy to more closely align operations, which would allow both to provide more punch, and give the Marines the ability to launch from both ships, and small, ad-hoc bases on land to support the fleet.

In addition, the British Royal Navy will soon boast two new F-35-capable aircraft carriers, allowing the UK to take some of the load off the US Navy in keeping carriers sailing in as many places as possible. For the moment, however, the Navy’s 10 big deck carriers are carrying the load, and the price of two decades of long, punishing deployments, along with a holiday from carrier construction, has caught up with it."

Source: https://breakingdefense.com/2019/10/all ... oversight/

[sferrin]

As long as it didn't come at the expense of CVN numbers but you just KNOW some democrat is going to pitch, "a carrier is a carrier" and we'll be left trying to make LHAs perform like CVNs.

[spazsinbad]

"...we'll be left trying to make LHAs perform like CVNs." Does that mean park half the LHAs on the coast - under repair?

[spazsinbad]

Oh dear - what can the matter be - they're there - stuck somewhere.... [BEST READ ALL of this ARsTICKLE at the JUMP!]

Marines Could Deploy More 'Lightning Carriers' amid High Demand for Flattops
31 Oct 2019 Gina Harkins

"When Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer pitched sending an aircraft carrier into early retirement, he had an idea for how to answer the call for flattops around the world: an amphibious assault ship loaded up with F-35B Joint Strike Fighter jets.

Spencer said he had big plans for what he could do with the $3.8 billion the Navy could save by retiring the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman decades before planned. But the idea to forgo refueling the carrier's nuclear reactor core was unpopular on Capitol Hill and eventually reversed by President Donald Trump [NavAv KnowItAll for Steam Catapults]....

..Spencer said he wants to see 20 F-35Bs, which are designed to operate from amphibious assault ships, on the America's flight deck. "You might see us do that in the near future," he said. "We might just launch it out once -- try it out, put it in a couple of exercises and know that we have it up our sleeve."

The Marine Corps called the test on the America "the birth of the most lethal, aviation-capable amphibious assault ship to date." Lt. Col. John Dirk, VMFA-122's commanding officer, said in a news release about the exercise that adding the F-35Bs' sensors and weapons to the amphib fleet is a "lethal combination."...

..."People came up to me and said, 'Are you out of your mind, secretary? Not refueling the Truman ... that's just insane,'" Spencer said.

But if the sea services are going to be ready for the next fight, he said they must be allowed to ditch inefficient equipment. The Ford-class carriers will be able to fly 30% more sorties and operate with 25% fewer people on board than the Nimitz-class ships, he added.

"It's an efficiency game changer," Spencer said. "So let me abandon an older vessel and move to the newer fleet.""

Source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/201 ... ttops.html

[quicksilver]

...you just KNOW some democrat is going to pitch, "a carrier is a carrier" and we'll be left trying to make LHAs perform like CVNs.

We’ll spot you the Republican in place of the Dem, but great call..