dmereifield wrote:Do we know anything about squadron sizes yet?
Looking at it purely from the perspective of what would be best to get on to the carriers (i.e not considering RAF requirements, administrative efficiency, deep maintenance requirements etc) I tend to think squadrons of 9 would work best. That way a carrier could carry nine F35s while still being able to support significant amphibious rotary lift in the LPH role, while principally conducting ASW ops in the Atlantic or just for low key (or as low key as a 70k carrier can get...) show the flag deployments.
The main potential advantage is that current plans are for the carrier to routinely carry twelve jets but I would hope that with squadrons of nine the usual complement would become a respectable eighteen. I may well be wrong but am presuming the additional six jets would actually disproportionately increase the offensive firepower available as a large portion of the twelve will have to be, in many situations, earmarked for fleet defence CAP. If twelve is increased to eighteen then it becomes possible to start using ten or more of them offensively. Another advantage is that a 'surge' to having twenty seven on board seems a more realistic scenario than a surge to thirty six and therefore would hopefully happen from time to time whereas thirty six will occur once in a decade, if ever. In a full scale war situation you could still get the thirty six aboard but spread across four squadrons rather than three.