Navy Struggles With 'Fighter Gap'

Dan wrote:
Andrew Swallow wrote:
BlackBeard wrote:
On Apr 7, 10:25 pm, Andrew Swallow wrote:
Ray O'Hara wrote:
wrote in message
...

See:
http://defensenews.com/story.php?i=3466832&c=FEA&s=CVS
What should the Navy do? Buy more F/A-18's? Speed up JSF
procurement?
Or something else?
gap vs who?
Try the Chinese attack submarines.

Andrew Swallow

I must admit I am lost here. How does one find relevance between the
OP subject and Attack Subs?

BB

Know thy enemy. Do not fall into the trap of preparing to
fight the last war but not the next one.

The planes and submarines are enemies. The Chinese attack
submarines are being built to sink US aircraft carriers. See
previous posts on sci.military.naval. There may be sufficient
submarines to make a gap through the escort ships.

Since aircraft carriers do not have large guns and torpedoes have a
longer range than depth charges the carrier will have to rely on
its aircraft for defence. So what ever aircraft are purchased for
the ship will need the ability to find and/or sink submarines.

So as well as top gun vs top gun the US Navy needs to do top gun
vs bottom gun.

Andrew Swallow

All very interesting, but what has that interesting trivia to do with
fighter gaps?

Dan

Everything - your fighters have the wrong armaments and sensors.

Andrew Swallow

Andrew Swallow wrote:

:Ray O'Hara wrote:
: wrote in message
: ...
: See:
:
: http://defensenews.com/story.php?i=3466832&c=FEA&s=CVS
:
:
: What should the Navy do? Buy more F/A-18's? Speed up JSF
: procurement?
:
: Or something else?
:
: gap vs who?
:
:
:Try the Chinese attack submarines.
:

Oh, don't be silly! How the hell can there be a 'gap' between non-ASW
aircraft and submarines?

The 'gap' being discussed is between retirement dates for F/A-18C/D
airframes and the fleet entry of F-35C to replace them. Without some
action the F/A-18C/D aircraft have to retire, as they are getting too
many flight hours and cat/trap cycles on them to retain without doing
something. Without some sort of procurement there will be no
airframes to replace them with for several years after they are gone.

I don't see how accelerating F-35C buys is possible, since neither the
money nor the aircraft will be available.

Trying to recondition high flight time airframes is probably a
non-starter, since that would probably cost as much as buying them
new. Except you can't buy them new because the C/D line is closed.

To me it makes sense to trade off some or all of the projected future
JSF buy to buy more capable F/A-18E/F airframes at half the price of
buying F-35C.

--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney

Ray O'Hara wrote:
wrote in message
...

See:

http://defensenews.com/story.php?i=3466832&c=FEA&s=CVS


What should the Navy do? Buy more F/A-18's? Speed up JSF
procurement?

Or something else?


gap vs who?



Not a Who, vs Time. Arround the 2016 thru 2025 the F-18's will be at
retirment age. That is the Gap. Right now the JSF may not show up till
then...