Originally Posted by
BDGERJMN
I don't disagree, but Marine aviation sold themselves out on the B, and as Whisper so eloquently outlined in the article I posted above, lost out when they failed to realize they needed to buy the F model Superhornet..certainly a different discussion altogether.
Shack. Throw a LITENING II POD on it, and wow. What a CAS platform.
How do you satisfy the fast air/CAS req for a MEU though without either 1.) sending a CVN along or 2.) baseing them ashore? Rhetorical question that we probably can't solve here.
And I'm not advocating for the B. Whisper brough up a great point about the British Harrier that was rocketed. Think more recently to the 6 Harriers that were lost at K-har. Imagine if that had been 6 B's. All points he brings up in his discussion about forward deploying national assets.
Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
That wasn't really my point. Even carriers are getting drones. You can hang those bombs on the drone that launches from the carrier. That's my point. The manned aircraft aspect is just not that critical, at least for the future.
Logistically, it might be easier/cheaper to rotate subs than resupply carriers, I don't know, but it's a mess of man and machine. It's maybe a ways off before we don't need carriers, but I can see the future for manned aircraft is bleak.
Subs are a (limited) strategic asset that you can't just roll in and out of theater hucking TLAM. They bring a whole host of much more complicated security concerns too with regard to their on going operation in a theater.