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[Nickbat]

A great number of people like to portray UKIP as a single-policy party but, in fact, they have a wide range of policies. Lord Hesketh (formerly behind James Hunt in F1) has today come up with an interesting proposal to equip our aircraft carriers (those that are being built) with "marinized Typhoons". I don't know enough about the technicalities to comment on the viability of Hesketh's plan, but it is good to see different suggestions being aired. 

http://ukip.org/content/latest-news/2585-ukip-solution-to-carrier-aircraft

[Rods2]

I'm not sure all of UKIP's arguments on UK F35C procurement problems are correct! The F35 is an extremely amphibious project and seems to be suffering more than its fair share of problems as a result. But it is a much too important project for the Americans where is it will replace F16s, F18s and Harrier aircraft. As an interim solution, it is a good idea, that way we could have aircraft and a carrier in 2016, so it can actually do its job! 

We have a long history of cancellations and problematic aircraft procurement and the the need for interim solutions, Buying Air Defence Phantoms from the Americans and the RAF flying BAE Buccaneers once we had scrapped our conventional carriers comes to mind.   

But interim is the word as the Typhoon is a 4th Generation design which implements very little in the way of stealth technology. By 2020 with India, Russia and China will all having 5th Generation fighters (and will have exported them to other countries), we will need a 5th Generation carrier-borne fighter, so we need to keep going with this project. The Dutch and Norwegian airforces are also part of the F35 project where they plan to replace their F16s with F35As.