Bernard
Junior Member
Look at it this way: For every target an aircraft carrier wants to hit, particularly when the other guy's air defense systems are up and running, it needs to launch a whole slew of jets to accomplish a bunch of related missions. Airborne early warning radar, jammers, fighters, tankers for all those enablers and shooters — the list is long. Cutting that down to just the one or two jets that are going to be sneaking in and hitting stuff makes everyone's life much simpler. This means that the aircraft carrier can now engage a lot more targets at the same time, using the same number of aircraft.
It also means that, every time an aircraft carrier shows up nearby, the bad guys have to factor in the very real likelihood that the carrier group is sending stealthy aircraft in to conduct all manner of surreptitious reconnaissance. That's entirely unprecedented.
Take these different things together and it starts adding up to some major strategic differences. No carrier strike group has ever been able to carry out deep, invasive reconnaissance of sensitive targets. And have you ever heard of a case where you'd call upon the US Marine Corps to launch long-range airstrikes against heavily defended strategic targets on the first day of war?
And speaking of the Marines: Instead of just counting on the 10 giant super-carriers capable of launching big, complex strike formations to take on heavily defended targets, the US can now use the other nine amphibious assault ships that the Marines fly their decidedly non-stealthy AV-8 Harrier ground attack jets from. Substituting F-35 for them means the number of ships that can carry all that stealthy, ISTAR, electronic warfare, and strike capability to the front door of someone the US has beef with almost doubles.
How all these things are going to fold together and change the way that the US can and will project power is fodder for a much larger debate, because things get pretty complex at a strategic level. But there's one thing for sure: US allies flying the F-35 will need less American support for their own operations.
The US has been using stealth technology in combat since 1988, when F-117 jets bombed Panama, so it's really old news that going at war with the Americans means dealing with stuff you can't really see. (Not completely invisible, mind you, just really hard to find and kill.)
People know that a large coalition that involves the US will likely have stealth and a bunch of enablers, so all potential US allies basically have that stuff by proxy. Secondly, a lot of countries that have worked in partnership with the US military have grown fond of all the neat things that the seemingly bottomless US defense budget can provide.
"Just on a matter of scale, the way the UK would do something compared to the USAF or the US Navy, the number of assets and capability they've got is fundamentally different," said Royal Navy Commander Greg Smith. "We don't have all the enablers the US Air Force has. Clearly we operate with the USAF and the US Navy an awful lot ... but [the F-35] gives us the ability not to require so many of those enablers."
So the Brits, who will fly their F-35s from carriers, have just gained that ability to do on their own a lot of the fancy stuff that they could do until now only with the Americans. If they want to carry out a deep stealth strike against, say, Argentina, they don't need the US to hold their hand to do it. Likewise, their contributions will become more important in any coalition, including one involving the US military.
So a whole bunch of countries can now operate at a much higher level, with greater strategic impact, independent of the US. 11 countries other than the US are currently participating in the program and are planning on getting their own complement of F-35 aircraft. To unpack the impact of that, let's look at that list.
We've got seven NATO countries: Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. This will change the calculus of any fight involving NATO; Russia will be facing off against at least a few new operators of stealthy strike/reconnaissance capabilities in Europe alone.
Going to the Pacific, there are three future users: Australia, Japan, and South Korea. That has the Chinese scrambling in an attempt to make (and quite possibly copy) their own stealth fighter jet, to counter the advance in strategic capability the F-35 gives their regional adversaries.
In the Middle East, Israel's acquisition of the F-35 is, in some ways, just a continuation of its long-standing policy of maintaining a qualitative edge over its neighbors. But it also affects the power dynamic between Israel and Iran; the latter must be worried that there are now more options for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
These non-US operators of the F-35 can be divided into two subsets, each with its own strategic implications.
First off are the countries that will be getting the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version, the F-35B, and have ships that will be able to launch and retrieve. Italy has a new assault carrier, roughly equivalent to those US amphibious assault ships. The Brits are about to launch their second Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. Although smaller than the US's active and planned super-carriers at 65,000 tons versus 100,000, the UK ships will be about the size of current and planned Chinese and Russian aircraft carriers.
Meanwhile, the Italians launched their new flagship, the Cavour, in 2004, and have open orders for the F-35B variant, which may be able to operate from either the Cavour or the older Giuseppe Garibaldi. That said, there's a fair bit of instability surrounding these plans right now, so it might not be prudent to print the formal announcements quite yet.
[part2]
It also means that, every time an aircraft carrier shows up nearby, the bad guys have to factor in the very real likelihood that the carrier group is sending stealthy aircraft in to conduct all manner of surreptitious reconnaissance. That's entirely unprecedented.
Take these different things together and it starts adding up to some major strategic differences. No carrier strike group has ever been able to carry out deep, invasive reconnaissance of sensitive targets. And have you ever heard of a case where you'd call upon the US Marine Corps to launch long-range airstrikes against heavily defended strategic targets on the first day of war?
And speaking of the Marines: Instead of just counting on the 10 giant super-carriers capable of launching big, complex strike formations to take on heavily defended targets, the US can now use the other nine amphibious assault ships that the Marines fly their decidedly non-stealthy AV-8 Harrier ground attack jets from. Substituting F-35 for them means the number of ships that can carry all that stealthy, ISTAR, electronic warfare, and strike capability to the front door of someone the US has beef with almost doubles.
How all these things are going to fold together and change the way that the US can and will project power is fodder for a much larger debate, because things get pretty complex at a strategic level. But there's one thing for sure: US allies flying the F-35 will need less American support for their own operations.
The US has been using stealth technology in combat since 1988, when F-117 jets bombed Panama, so it's really old news that going at war with the Americans means dealing with stuff you can't really see. (Not completely invisible, mind you, just really hard to find and kill.)
People know that a large coalition that involves the US will likely have stealth and a bunch of enablers, so all potential US allies basically have that stuff by proxy. Secondly, a lot of countries that have worked in partnership with the US military have grown fond of all the neat things that the seemingly bottomless US defense budget can provide.
"Just on a matter of scale, the way the UK would do something compared to the USAF or the US Navy, the number of assets and capability they've got is fundamentally different," said Royal Navy Commander Greg Smith. "We don't have all the enablers the US Air Force has. Clearly we operate with the USAF and the US Navy an awful lot ... but [the F-35] gives us the ability not to require so many of those enablers."
So the Brits, who will fly their F-35s from carriers, have just gained that ability to do on their own a lot of the fancy stuff that they could do until now only with the Americans. If they want to carry out a deep stealth strike against, say, Argentina, they don't need the US to hold their hand to do it. Likewise, their contributions will become more important in any coalition, including one involving the US military.
So a whole bunch of countries can now operate at a much higher level, with greater strategic impact, independent of the US. 11 countries other than the US are currently participating in the program and are planning on getting their own complement of F-35 aircraft. To unpack the impact of that, let's look at that list.
We've got seven NATO countries: Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. This will change the calculus of any fight involving NATO; Russia will be facing off against at least a few new operators of stealthy strike/reconnaissance capabilities in Europe alone.
Going to the Pacific, there are three future users: Australia, Japan, and South Korea. That has the Chinese scrambling in an attempt to make (and quite possibly copy) their own stealth fighter jet, to counter the advance in strategic capability the F-35 gives their regional adversaries.
In the Middle East, Israel's acquisition of the F-35 is, in some ways, just a continuation of its long-standing policy of maintaining a qualitative edge over its neighbors. But it also affects the power dynamic between Israel and Iran; the latter must be worried that there are now more options for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
These non-US operators of the F-35 can be divided into two subsets, each with its own strategic implications.
First off are the countries that will be getting the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version, the F-35B, and have ships that will be able to launch and retrieve. Italy has a new assault carrier, roughly equivalent to those US amphibious assault ships. The Brits are about to launch their second Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. Although smaller than the US's active and planned super-carriers at 65,000 tons versus 100,000, the UK ships will be about the size of current and planned Chinese and Russian aircraft carriers.
Meanwhile, the Italians launched their new flagship, the Cavour, in 2004, and have open orders for the F-35B variant, which may be able to operate from either the Cavour or the older Giuseppe Garibaldi. That said, there's a fair bit of instability surrounding these plans right now, so it might not be prudent to print the formal announcements quite yet.
[part2]
