Comments by "Tams80" (@tams805) on "F-35 Dambusters Squadron Joins HMS Queen Elizabeth For The FIRST Time! | Forces TV ✈️" video.

  1. Great to see the RAF and Royal Navy working together, despite the bitching that went on about the B variant. The UK can't afford to have an armed forces as separated as the US's given the cost of modern equipment.
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  2. I love the Harrier, they were incredible for their time (and still pretty good to this day). However, they were pigs to handle when landing, relatively slow, carried smaller payloads, had shorter range, and like whales on radar in comparison to the F35-B. The Harrier could easily fly backwards, but that's of very limited use.
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  3. The UK is a small country, with a small armed forces. Multi-purpose equipment is a very efficient use of resources, even if it does come with slight penalties. It's better to have those slight penalties than have a smaller, much more vulnerable capabilities. And sure, in the past the UK's armed forces were larger and had much more equipment. Modern technology has reduced the need for that and made it too expensive to maintain a large number and variety of capabilities. We don't need 100 destroyers any more (although a few more and a few more frigates would be nice...)
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  4. Carry more aircraft, with greater payload, with smaller radar signatures, with higher sortie rates, while being much more comfortable for the crew. Oh, and less likely to sink.
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  5. True, the FAA won't, but this training and evaluation is using people from both the RAF and the FAA. So RAF personnel will be able to fill in any gaps if the need arises. It's great to see this happening so soon (even if likely is partly due to some bargaining by the RAF to get their F35-Bs first (as the Royal Navy just got two stonking great carriers)). During normal operations, one carrier is always going to be in refit, repair, or training while the other is on active deployment. Both can, of course, be pressed into active deployment if needed and that's when the RAF will be needed to supply crew and planes. I suspect there will almost always be some RAF crew attached to the FAA.
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