SAF: F-35B cannot generate enough sorties to replace A-10
16 May 2012 Dave Majumdar
"The US Air Force has concluded that the short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) Lockheed Martin F-35B- model aircraft cannot generate enough sorties to meet its needs; therefore the service will not consider replacing the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog close air support jet with that variant....
..."The F-35B is well-suited to support of the Marine Air Ground Taskforce (MAGTF) in very austere locations," says USAF chief of staff Gen Norton Schwartz, speaking at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "But the reality is, is that scenario is not a high sortie generation scenario."... ???????????????????????????????????????????? [HOW "BOUT BEING CLOSER TO THE FIGHT FOR SHORT TRANSIT TIMES?]
...Retired Lt Gen George Trautman, a former US Marine Corps (USMC) deputy commandant for aviation, disputes Schwartz's assertion that the F-35B cannot generate as many sorties as the A or C model aircraft.
"The F35B has highest sortie generation rate among the three JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] variants," Trautman says. "There may be other reasons the air force doesn't want the B, but sortie rate isn't a factor."
In fact, the USMC's concept of operations depends on the STOVL variant generating more sorties more rapidly than other JSF models, says retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former naval aviator.
The key performance parameters (KPP) for the F-35 require higher sortie rates for the B-model at four sorties per day. The A and C models are only required to generate three sorties per day.
"So far in SDD [System Development and Demonstration], all three variants are on track to exceed their KPPs at the completion of SDD," Gardner says. "The B looks to come in at about six sorties per day, the A at about 3.5 and the C at close to four."
While USAF will not consider buying the F-35B, the service is fully committed to buying its own conventional take-off F-35A variant...."
Source:
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ac-371985/
I have included this article because of the claim of sortie rates for the F35b there has sometimes been discussion on how many aircraft should be carried on the carrier not the number of sorties that are aimed for by the aircraft to meet the required number of sorties in daily operations of the carrier ,is there any further data on this