Admiral: Navy Needs F-35 Capabilities [View All]

[unhappycamper]

Admiral: Navy Needs F-35 Capabilities
May 27, 2010
American Forces Press Service|by Jim Garamone

The Navy needs the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter's fifth-generation capabilities, said the service's acting director of air warfare.

Navy Rear Adm. Michael C. Manazir spoke to reporters because he wanted to "completely dispel the rumor that the Navy is soft on F-35C."

The F-35C is the aircraft-carrier version of the joint strike fighter. The F-35A model is for the Air Force, and the F-35B will be a vertical take-off and landing model for the Marines.

The FA-18E and FA-18F Super Hornets are great airplanes, Manazir said, but they do not have the capabilities that the F-35C's will bring to the Navy. Delays in the joint strike fighter program and the cost increases associated with them caused some supposition that the Navy would turn to the FA-18s, he added.

The Navy has had the F-35C on its horizon for more than a decade, the admiral said. In that time, the FA-18's capabilities have grown, with the latest aircraft – the E, F and G models – reaching the fourth-generation airframe's limits. "We need to move into the F-35C to realize our vision of tactical air coming off of carriers," he said.



unhappycamper comment: Good luck with that Admiral. I sincerely doubt you are going to have a quarter billion dollar airplane flying off an $11.5 billion dollar aircraft carrier. (Assuming of course that the F-35 can fly off an aircraft carrier. And that you can build that $11.5 billion dollar aircraft carrier.)