According to The Telegraph, the Royal Navy is approaching the industry for ideas about future “aircraft launch and recovery systems” that can be “sufficiently technically mature to be fitted to a suitable ship from 2023.”
U.S. Navy Photograph by Liz Wolter [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The launch system can either be powered by steam or eletromagnetic power and handle an aircraft weighing 25 tonnes. The recovery system must handle 21 tonnes.
Gareth Corfield, a defence specialist, said that the proposed system is not able to launch the F-35C and is likely to be “an early look at how the Tempest optionally manned aircraft could be used by the Royal Navy.”
“Timing is key and the 2023 installation date might fall towards the end of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first major refit after her South China Sea deployment later this year.”
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