Turkey seeking AV-8Bs

[eagle driver]

You will not believe this one.

Turkey seeks to buy Harriers as an interim measure until F-35Bs are ready

Kerry Herschelman
Jane’s Defence Weekly

06 December 2017

Turkey has been seeking to buy an unknown number of Harrier fighters as a stop-gap measure until the F-35B short take-off/vertical landing version of the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is ready for Turkish service, Jane’s has learned from reliable Turkish and Western defence industry sources.

Jane’s earlier reported that Turkey had expressed to the United States its interest in purchasing 19 or 20 of the F-35B STOVL version. This is in addition to the 100 F-35As it already plans to buy from Lockheed Martin.

Turkey first approached the United Kingdom about the purchase of Harriers, but then turned to the United States for the AV-8B in the inventory of the U.S. Marine Corps because the aircraft have not been used by the U.K. armed forces since 2010.

[Supra]

You will not believe this one. (Edit)
Turkey first approached the United Kingdom about the purchase of Harriers, but then turned to the United States for the AV-8B in the inventory of the U.S. Marine Corps because the aircraft have not been used by the U.K. armed forces since 2010.

How the 'Donald Duck' can a Country that has never operated the Harrier possibly consider procuring not only the airframes, but all the peripherals spares & trained personnel through to a 'hush-house' engine bay as an interim measure?
Sounds more like they would be more interested in operating the affordable alternative to the F35B, now....that's a radical idea! Just imagine if you were a Government that had all of the above in place & p***ed it all away 10 years (at the earliest?) before a credible replacement was operational. No forget that, it's just too silly to comprehend!
I say again.....If the UK Defence will have operated/survived without Carrier-borne fixed-wing airpower for at least 10 years, why do we need those two grey Car-carriers now? They are an expensive folly that cannot be utilised or defended properly due to compromised design & equipment,
They have enormous willy-waving global presence, but no balls to back it up!
To adopt the complete Victor Meldrew http://assets5.heart.co.uk/2015/39/vict ... view-0.png

[Reach1985]

Worth a trip to Turkey if they get a few though - F-4's and Harriers - happy days!

Re: the carriers i couldn't agree more with Supra - we've lived without them for god knows how long with apparently little want for one (or two) - however i watched a doc on Youtube about the Falklands War the other day mainly because i knew quite alot about the context and the politics but i didnt know a great deal about the opertaion itself apart from the main 'events' so to speak (Goose Green, HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyer, Exocet, Mount Longdon etc.) and i couldnt help thinking that the mentality we had then is partly driving the 'need' for the carriers today - being able to project that power across the globe to defend, if needs be, our far flung territories. But you can't help thinking that it's a rather outdated thought process.

[iainpeden]

Worth a trip to Turkey if they get a few though - F-4's and Harriers - happy days!

Re: the carriers i couldn't agree more with Supra - we've lived without them for god knows how long with apparently little want for one (or two) - however i watched a doc on Youtube about the Falklands War the other day mainly because i knew quite alot about the context and the politics but i didnt know a great deal about the opertaion itself apart from the main 'events' so to speak (Goose Green, HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyer, Exocet, Mount Longdon etc.) and i couldnt help thinking that the mentality we had then is partly driving the 'need' for the carriers today - being able to project that power across the globe to defend, if needs be, our far flung territories. But you can't help thinking that it's a rather outdated thought process.

The classic "plan for the war you last fought" except it wasn't.

[paddyboy]

[C24]

As a former boss of mine would probably say,

"What a perfect sales opportunity!"

A. A bareboat charter for one or both unused carriers.
B. Combined new uk company Bae/ex MOD Harrier force personnel offering training & maintenance deal.
C. Bae & Boeing to start production of updated STOL aircraft similar to HarrierAV8.
D. MOD to place orders for a fleet of Atlantic Conveyor class vessels to operate in a combined commercial/military fashion replacing the carriers. Of course, to be run for profit
E. UK to build and operate fishing fleet run from Scotland to fish around the Falklands.
F. UK to create environmentally friendly oil industry to exploit the petroleum reserves down there.
G. Move large contingent of our armed forces into new bases in the Falklands to provide protection.

(And I only logged on to wish everyone Merry Chrimble! )