Underfunded because they wasted the money on the carriers, greedily pushing for them in the belief that it would force the hand of government to eventually fund planes for them even at the expense of other services.... having ideologically never forgiven the RAF for the demise of the carrier force previously.
While 'nice to have', its difficult to see how we could more effectively use a crrier in the world today, with our dwindling influence, or should I say desire to influence. A far more sensible option would have been 4(?) state of the art helicopter/assault style platforms that would cover small scale intervention, humanitarian (which is not the primary aim for a warship but a useful one and probably better
PR value home and abroad than the perennially moaned about 'overseas aid budget' [which I happen to think is 'strategically' a good thing]).
But the dis-jointed UK government thinking has got its head firmly jammed up its own arse and has done since Iraq 2003.
ps; rant over...
