Originally Posted by
KenV
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, then the choice between cat & trap vs STOVL carriers is pretty easy. On the other hand, once you're committed to STOVL carriers, you're committed to no tankers, no AWACS, and no jammers for the life of the carriers, or about half a century.
Right on Ken. The price jump from STOVL to full Cat and Trap is eye watering- and it's not just the "cats and trap"- a new E-2D makes the F-35 look cheap. When you figure in an air wing of several types, increased training (carrier quals) and the infrastructure, it becomes unaffordable pretty quickly.