Originally Posted by
Obi Wan Russell
If you have a spare £2Billion per ship for the conversion to cat and trap, please feel free to chip in. Money is the sole reason they weren't fitted so.
Also the extra manpower needed for catapults and arrestor gear, the lack of steam, the desire to have a common aircraft for RN and RAF, and for it to be possible for the carrier to be rapidly reinforced, and training issues (CTOL has a huge training burden).
I understand that the US Navy intends to use the MQ-25 in lieu of Hornets with buddy tanks, primarily offering a suck of gas to the aircraft that struggles to get down onto the carrier deck and has to go around again.
Aircraft landing vertically do not have this need.