I guess it all depends on affordability. If you decide you can't afford dedicated aerial tankers (even unmanned ones) or dedicated AWACS aircraft, or dedicated jammer aircraft, or fixed wing COD, then the choice between cat & trap vs STOVL carriers is pretty easy. Plus, if you haven't had cat and trap carriers in several years, how hard will it be to relearn how to do that? It's as much art as science. So yet more pressure to go STOVL
On the other hand, once you're committed to STOVL carriers, you're committed to no tankers, no AWACS, no jammers, and no COD for the life of the carriers, or about half a century. And let's say a five decades goes by with no cat & trap carriers. How difficult and expensive will it be to recreate everything that cat & trap requires when you haven't done if for several decades? Neither the Russians nor the Chinese have been able to pull it off. At least not yet.
Last edited by KenV; 5th Jun 2018 at 14:23.