360° turn for UK carriers

摘要

The saga of the UK Royal Navy's new carriers and their air component continues. At first they were planned to be equipped with the V/STOL version of the F35. Then it was decided in a complete change of strategy to switch to the conventional carrier version of the F35. However this required the installation of catapults and arrester gear. As the two vessels are to be powered by gas turbines, large quantities of steam would not be available for the traditional catapult system; instead it was being considered to install an electromagnetic system still under development in the USA and the UK. The re-design of the carriers to accommodate these systems plus the equipment cost was initially estimated as adding around £960M to the overall budget. This cost has, according to the British Government, now increased substantially to nearer £2Bn and in addition would delay the entry into operational service of the first carrier by around three years.