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Originally Posted by TeeCeeCee

Since we don't have the empire anymore, we don't need the fleet or have the money for the ships.

I went to an interesting lecture by a pre-eminent Naval historian recently. He argues that whilst we might not have an empire per se, the international trade routes that we set up during the Imperial period are still there and still need to be protected. Whilst we might not reign over India, Canada, Nigeria, Middle East etc we still trade with them (which is why London is still the financial hub of the world despite the loss of Empire). The Navy is still need to protect our trade routes. Or something. I fell asleep near the end.

BTW that Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing for F-35B is still dodgy however you cut it.

Wave Dodger. Well aware of WL cost models thanks, have built a few myself. However, the FMS package includes all the logistic support documentation etc. The budget is supposed to be for the conversion itself, not other add-ons. Even if it was, there should be minimal impact on complementing and shoreside support. You have to have loads of bodies thrown at something to make a real difference. As a rule of thumb, contractor personnel cost about £200k pa, service personnel between £500k and £1M pa.Even over ten years that's quite a few bodies to get anywhere near teh costs being quoted......

Wonder what the cost of those catapult systems on the merchant naval ww2 ships was?

Originally Posted by Not_a_boffin

The budget is supposed to be for the conversion itself, not other add-ons. Even if it was, there should be minimal impact on complementing and shoreside support. You have to have loads of bodies thrown at something to make a real difference. As a rule of thumb, contractor personnel cost about £200k pa, service personnel between £500k and £1M pa.Even over ten years that's quite a few bodies to get anywhere near teh costs being quoted......

Read my post again. The costs as presented are for the whole life cost of the equipment, taking into account hardware failures, spares and other associated costs, not just the cost of manpower. It is the whole life package. You're comparing apples and tuesdays. The costs as presented will have indicative manpower support costs but for an equipment capability such as this the largest component costs tend to be hardware, especially in an instance like this when we're buying a very bespoke capability - hence the large costs. The budget was never for just conversion, that isn't how we deliver capabilities.

Curtiss-SB2C-Helldiver-WWII-Dive-Bomber-Crash.jpg

Probably not enough.