Mediocre Carriers Are Sometimes Enough

Australia giving some thought to the F-35B:

Defence Minister David Johnston told The Weekend West _the Government was considering buying the "B" model of the F-35 - a specialised variant of the stealth jet being built to operate from aircraft carriers. Last month, Australia committed to buying 72 of the conventional model F-35s from US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin at a cost of almost $20 billion. But the Government has left the door open to buying more F-35s and the minister says the F-35B will be considered. "Now that aircraft is more expensive, does not have the range but it's an option that has been considered from day one," Senator Johnston said.

Here's a piece I wrote a couple weeks ago on the suitability of the Canberra class as F-35B platform:

To be clear, effectively operating the high-tech JSF takes more than just a flat deck. The Canberras are amphibious warships first. They can support helicopters just fine, but they lack the munitions and aviation fuel storage to support intensive fixed-wing flight operations. Training, deck organization and personnel for helicopters differ significantly compared to those for fighters. Moreover, flying JSFs from the Canberras would impair the vessels’ ability to carry out their primary mission by taking up deck space and storage and splitting training time... The Canberras wouldn’t make great carriers or even good carriers. But in the right circumstances, Australia might only need a mediocre carrier.