From the News

If it is true, the British Army is dead 

The Telegraph says that in October all the 31 remaining battalions of the army under Army 2020 will be cut back further, to 520-man establishments.

This is a completely new thing. The Army has been planning to reach the 82.000 regulars figure having only Light Role infantry battalions cut back to comparable levels, and even those actually higher: 561 men. Considering that this means removing one rifle platoon from each Company, hoping in a top-up coming from paired reserve battalion before deployment, i can't even begin to imagine what a battalion of 520 men would look like. It would probably be utterly useless.


The reduction to Light Role Infantry battalions and Gurkhas already can't be described as smart because the Reserves recruitment is, so far at least, going horribly, and there are three such downsized infantry battalions which do not have at all a paired reserve battalion from which to draw manpower: 1 SCOTS battalion and the two Gurkha battalions are left unpaired in the announced Army 2020 plan, because there are not enough reserve infantry battalions.

The figures released so far to Parliament and Defence Committee about the establishments of the major components of Army 2020 speak of:

729 armoured infantry battalion
709 mechanised infantry battalion
561 Light Role Infantry
581 Foxhound-mounted infantry
567 Gurkha battalion
660 PARA battalion
587 Challenger 2 tank regiment
528 FRES SV reconnaissance regiment
404 Jackal-mounted light cavalry regiment
370 Adaptable Artillery light gun regiment (apparently with only two gun batteries, a paltry 12 L118 guns. I'm unable to confirm this at 100% certainty at the moment)
around 600 Reaction Artillery regiment (18 AS90 in three batteries, 6 GMLRS in one battery)
around 600 Reaction Royal Engineer regiment
around 500 Adaptable Royal Engineer regiment

An armoured infantry battalion of 520 is frankly unthinkable of. It would probably be able to field a single company.

Since the above are Army 2020 figures, the new cut announced by the Telegraph is either:

- Not true
- Indication that the Army and MOD are total idiots which did not understand the extent of the manpower reduction and are back to square one
- Indication that the 82.000 regulars are to become even fewer already, while sticking to the absurd rule that no more goddamned capbadges must go

In any case but the first, the Army is about to become entirely useless. If the Telegraph is right, the mania of protecting capbadges has reached the level of absolute foolishness.

If the second point is true, serious questions must be asked about Army top brass, and about the Army itself, because if the target is still 82.000 regulars, they have to explain where all the manpower goes. 82.000 should be more than adequate to sustain the establishments announced so far. 



Assembly of the Ski Jump on HMS Queen Elizabeth: more complex than you think 

The 200-ft.-long ramp is the longest ever fitted to a carrier and, like the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers (QEC) themselves, is the first of its type to be purpose-designed from the outset for F-35 operations. Angled at 12.5 deg., the ramp wiii be 20-ft. high and is designed to reduce the required deck roll on takeoff by up to 50%, or allow an increased payload of up to 20%. The ramp achieves this by boosting vertical velocity, giving the aircraft a ballistic launch profile that provides it with additional time to accelerate to flying speed.

The assembly of the Ski Jump on HMS Queen Elizabeth has started, and it is not so straightforward a process. The ramp has been carefully designed by BAE in collaboration with Lochkeed Martin, to make sure that it is fully and safely compatible with the F35B.

You'll find the details on Aviation Week & Space Technology / 19 Aug 2013 pp.33-34, in the article: "RAMP UP - Deck-mounted ski-jump assembly marks key step toward U.K. carrier-based JSF operations", by Guy Norris.

The first section of Ski Jump is already on deck. Photo by

cockneyjock1974

A spectacular diagram showing the current state of the assembly, by

Wizz

Remember that an excellent place where to follow in almost real time the assembly of the new carriers is the huge thread up at MilitaryPhotos.net.



RAF pilot is the first non-US pilot to operate an F35B at sea

RAF Squadron Leader Jim Schofield, is the first international pilot to have conducted sea-based launch and landing in the F-35B.
Schofield made history while flying from USS Wasp, during the ongoing second period of sea trials for the F35B. A third test period is planned for the future, to lead to US Marines Initial Operating Capability in 2015. 

Does it melt the decks or not...?

There are many ways to give an answer. Words can be used, with some smartness, to tell a story that, while generally true, hides a few factors.
When F35B went to sea for trials on the USS Wasp, the US Marines needed a success to show to the public and to Congress, to have the F35B taken out of probation and saved from the many threats surrounding it.
One of the things they had to demonstrate during the trials was the resistance of the ship's deck to the F35B engine's exhaust. They had to counter the famous "it will melt the deck!" claim (which, by the way, is born out of a real concern apparent from official documents relating to the F35B development prior to sea trials, and not by an urban legend).

The F35B did not melt the deck, just as the C did not melt the Jet Blast Deflectors on trials. The USMC were also quick, when they released the Wasp trials videos, to specify that the very evidently freshly re-coated flight deck of the LHA had been treated with the usual, standard coatings, and specifically so that, after using the F35B on it, it would be possible to analyze the eventual damages.

 

The trials confirmed that most of the fears were fortunately unfunded, but despite the triumphant claims made by the USMC publically, the DoD documents show that there still are some issues and worries.
The F35B jet blast generates a 75 feet danger radius that must be kept in consideration during all deck ops, and while it does not melt the deck, it does degrade the coatings and paint much, much faster than any other aircraft but the MV-22, which has the same kind of hot exhaust issues, even if the propulsion is entirely different.

The US Navy official announcement at the end of the trials eventually specified that the new coating on Wasp was actually not entirely legacy and standard, after all. Landing Spot 9, used for the Vertical Landings, was coated with a new, experimental non-skid material, the Thermion. 
With the words of the US Navy statement:

Also being tested is a newer non-skid deck surface, Thermion, which is supported by a mechanical bond of ceramic and aluminum that makes the surface more resistant to extreme heat and better endures the wear and tear of flight operations. The Thermion covers landing spot nine on the flight deck, a small area used for vertical landings.

“The Thermion shows no signs of heat stress, which is good for the F-35, and eventually good for all surface ships,” said Kalnajs. [topside design and integration technical warrant for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)]

In addition, a series of other modifications were made to the USS Wasp for enabling it to work with the F35B, some of them definitive, such as the re-location of some antennas and radomes, some of them made for prudence and likely to be only temporary, such as replacing the rear Sparrow missile launcher with a dummy one, laced with sensors to measure heat, vibrations, overpressure, and sound levels, to make sure that aircrafts coming in to land won't damage the actual launcher or, worse, cause a missile cock-up inside it.
 
An almost certainly definitive change is the

moving (of) the flight deck’s “Tram Line,” or yellow line, which is used by pilots to guide them when performing short landings, closer to the port side of the ship.

This is due to the larger wingspan and greater sizes of the F35B compared to the Harrier. 
In total, JSF modifications ammounted to 6.4 million dollars in expenditure.

It is fair to expect the presence of Thermion in the deck coatings of the LHDs and LHAs of the USMC in the future, and it would be no surprise at all if Thermion made its way onto CVF as well.
So long as it works, all is good.

The F35 program is continuing to progress in its test and validation phase: one very important news is that solutions to the imagery lag and jitter issues of the Helmet Mounted Display have been engineered and are going to soon be flight tested. A new model of micro-camera is also due to be tested, hopefully solving the problem of acuity of the Night Vision imagery.
These mods are crucial to the success of the F35, which has in its HMD a fundamental component, also due to the decision of having no traditional HUD on board.

The sensors and mission system tests are also speeding up, with the aim of validating the Software Block 2A in the near future. Two-ways Data Link 16, radar, and infra-red targeting systems are all being tested and progressively readied.

So far into this year, both the F35B and F35C are reportedly 20% ahead of their test schedule. We are getting closer to validating the top performances required, with the F35B having flown to Mach 1.4 and having flown to 49.000 feet altitude, so well on the way for the final target of Mach 1.6 and 50.000 feet. It also achieved its expected 7G maneuver limit and validated its maximum airspeed of 630 knots.
The F35B is 50% done through its testing with clean-wing profile.

The F35C validated its 7.5 G limit and flew to 630 knots, but the naval variant requirement is 700 knots, so testing has not concluded. The C flew to 45.000 feet.
It is roughly 40% done in clean-wing configuration testing. Testing with external payloads will have to follow.
In the summer, the re-designed tailhook is due to be tested. 

The F35A is 45% done with its overall test program.

All variants have started flying with weapon payloads, and later this year tests for validation of high angle of attack maneuvers (50° is the requirement) will start. And at that point perhaps we'll have a solution to another cry often heard by people looking at F35 videos: "That's not a fighter jet, it never makes tight turns!".