The UK Carrier Strike Group sets sail

The main job of the Mk8 is to give the weapons techs something to do. It is less able to do that now it is electric and not hydraulic. 😉

🙂

Yes a torpedo would need to be on the F-35 external pylons instead, fitted to special adapters. The speed of a torpedo that can be dropped maybe a issue, shock of being dropped on water may damage internals before target is reached.
I still think the F-35 is not the right kind of aircraft for dropping torpedoes.
The Buccaneer strike aircraft would been the right aircraft for tha role, they could fly very low level above water until they reached the target, but it never was armed with torpedoes.
It was given the maritime strike role being armed the tactical Nukes to attack Soviet cruisers.

Hi mate, I don’t believe that the F35 is in any way a good fit for delivering torpedoes, there are far better options available – some still to come.
If you need to kill an enemy SM, then your own SM is the tool of choice, that’s its job. It just wastes time and adds uncertainty if you are going to call in a 3rd party to do the shooting. Also potentially could lead to a blue on blue scenario, detection ranges of modern SM’s are not what the films would have you believe, they are short, dropping a 3rd party weapon into the mix will expose both SM’s to potential homing from the weapon.
If you have to shoot from another unit, then as @Joe16 says below, the quickest response would be to fire an Asroc type weapon at it, hopefully by the time T26 comes into service we shall know whats going into their Mk41 VLS tubes!
I agree with you reference getting an asset into the right position to drop a torpedo asap is always a good thing. Helo’s getting airborne and into the tgt area all takes time(they cannot provide constant coverage for days on end, unless you have about 10-12 onboard), so, in the not too distant future I can envisage some form of torpedo armed UAV or two orbiting above the TG for 12hrs or more at a time, just waiting to be called into action.
My thoughts only BTW.

Yes, I think interim AShM is one of the more interesting competitions being run by the MOD at the moment for me. Just a bit too much of a gap in our capability at the moment.
As far as airbourne ASh and ASu, good question. I read that the Norwegians use Stingray from their old P-3 ASW aircraft, I’m hopeful that they’ll pay for the qualification on their new P-8 replacements so that we’ll be able to use the same. That will remove our need to stock Mk54.
I’ve seen a lot about various iterations of MQ-9B being used for maritime roles recently too, so would be interesting to add Protector to your list- particularly as a truck for sonobuoys and maybe Stingray for supporting P-8s in the Atlantic (GA are claiming a somewhat incredible 6,000 nautical mile range; no idea what range is with a useful load, but Lossiemouth to Iceland is only 1,000 km). Obviously, the RAF would have to put up some cash to buy the hardware and integration for ASW ops (Stingray, sonobuoy dispensers, surface searhc radar?), but I think it would be worthwhile.
As far as AShMs go, I do think there’s a case for qualifying Sea Venom for F-35B; it’s got a much larger warhead than Spear 3 and is lock on after launch, so (as far as I understand it on simple terms) is suitable for internal carriage as long as they can let it drop clear before firing the rocket motor. As a general rule, I do think that our sole fixed wing carrier-borne aircraft for the next 20+ years should have some kind of anti-ship weapon with a warhead larger than an ATGM. Mission kills of enemy warships are all well talked about, but ships at sea are moving in 3 dimensions and will have all kinds of soft and hard kill defences going off- sometimes a big warhead is what you need. Being able to reach out to the F-35B’s combat radius and then deliver an over-the-horizon heavy AShM (or land attack, they’re normally dual mode these days) gives our CSG equal reach and bite to the US and French groups.
Your mention of torpedoes for F-35B is an interesting one, I am both for and against. Time on target is, from what I’ve read, hugely important for ASW work against targets that are hard to find, let alone keep tabs on. So a fast mover would be an ideal delivery mechanism (if the F-35B can drop Paveway, then it can drop a parachute retarded Stingray). By contrast, sustainment costs (i.e. ops and maintenance) seems to be an absolute killer with the F-35- see Hushkit’s blog for a recent article done by an independent watchdog in the US. Merlin’s gearbox may require a lot of TLC, but I imagine it’s still cheaper per flight hour than an F-35. I’d still like to see a Stingray-based VLA with a longer reach of 20+km for a quick reaction delivery of ASW weapons.

With Norway getting the P8, you would expect JSM on P8 was also on the cards.

Hi Joe, it’s not that I don’t think SV isn’t wanted on the F35. Given a proper level of investment, then I think we might well have seen a layered approach for AShM for the Aircraft, possibly even consisting of S3\SV\JSM. Unfortunately as ever money will play a big part, so my take on it is we will eventually get two, S3 plus another! I can’t believe that our main Strike fighter for the next 30 yrs will only carry PW MK4 and S3 as it’s only offensive weapons!
If NSM is chosen for the Harpoon replacement, then JSM should be a no brainer, as it would be a fit for both P8 and F35. I believe the Nor\Aus combination are looking at carrying JSM internally on F35. If not, then as you say not a deal breaker, but a very useful addition in capability.
Unfortunately the money or lack of it\how MOD decide to spend it will ultimately determine what we get.

Ah, for some reason I was under the impression that the A and B bays were the same size – schoolboy error on my part. Will read said article properly next time!!!
Yes, S3 and PW is far too small a strike choice for a frontline jet, especially if they are taking on roles from both the Harriers and Tornadoes. We shall see how things shape up when we get the first Blk4 aircraft delivered.

Spear3 could be the future. Swarm of 8 networked missles acting like the old networked shipwrecks! 2 go high to attack sensors and draw their fire, 5 go low slamming into the waterline all together with another jamming the electronic eyes and radar. Surely that is better for the price than 1 NSM

As in for the integration of JSM into F-35B? Thankfully we’re not the only ones interested, so we could share out whatever it’d cost. In fact, I think the Norwegians an Australians have already signed up and committed to it, which is a big win.