The Influence of History

Two of the greatest navies in Europe have long been the British and the French. For most of their history, these two navies have been competitors, facing off in numerous wars from the Battle of Sluys in 1340 to the Attack on Mers-el-Kebir in 1940 (it is worth noting that, as was often the case in conflicts between these two great navies, the British triumphed in both the first and last of these actions). However, as Britain and France were eclipsed by rising powers outside of Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale slowly became partners rather than rivals. From the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata in 1845 and the Second Opium War in 1856 to the Suez Crisis of 1956, the British and French navies worked effectively together to project power abroad. Still, declining national strength during the Cold War saw both navies largely relegated to auxiliary forces under the umbrella of the United States Navy. While the Royal Navy saw a brief fli...

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is certainly one of today's most controversial procurement programs and is widely criticized for its extreme cost. In contrast, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is widely touted as an example of cost management and military procurement done right. But what happens if you dig a little deeper into the history of these two programs? The first thing that must be done is to understand the timelines of the two programs. Because both aircraft are currently being procured (the FY2019 Navy budget requests twenty four Super Hornets and nine Lightnings), there is a tendency to think of the two planes as near contemporaries. However, this is far from true. The first F/A-18E/F prototype was ordered in 1992 and made its first flight in 1995, while for the F-35C those dates were 2007 and 2010. Procurement of both aircraft began in the same year that the prototype first flew. To put this into perspective, fifteen years separated the first flights of the Sup...