(Washington, D.C.) The British carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth reached a new milestone by exchanging F-35B airplanes with the USS America, a first in class high-tech U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship.
As a vertical take off and landing stealth fighter, the F-35B can take off from amphibs as it does not need a runway, something which brings new tactical advantages to joint warfare operations.
Instead of needing to exchange 5th-generation aircraft from carrier to carrier, the U.S. and UK can operate F-35s in tandem with one another to share target data and, perhaps most of all, massively increase interoperability between the two Naval forces.
A key immediate advantage to having this ability, apart from interoperability, is that it could enable multi-national dual-carrier operations and increase attack optempo. Of possibly even greater importance, it could introduce vastly expanded attack range options, removing the need for as many tankers to extend attacks and dwell time over targets.
One ship, such as the British carrier, could be positioned much farther away while a more heavily armed amphib operated closer to shore or an enemy force. F-35s could take off from one ship before landing on the other to refuel, re-arm and prepare for additional attacks.
Yet another thing we hear a lot about is that, despite the advent of long-range sensors, AI and other new technologies, Sun Tzu’s principle of “mass” still very much matters, according to modern war planners.
F-35 Air Power Doubles
This means that an amphibious attack could close in on enemy shores with more than twice the amount of 5th-gen F-35 air power to reinforce landing operations with Marines and Amphibious Assault Vehicles able to advance onto a beachhead for land attack.
