Originally Posted by
Mortmeister
You cannot hold up the USS Gerald R. Ford as an example for us, because it generates the power from two'hoofing' nuclear reactors! I believe even they struggled initially.
Glad you mentioned power.
There is no way on this earth we could ever have afforded a nuclear CV.
Of course we could. We couldn't afford two CV in operation. Now we are. We are building nuclear powered submarines, no reason why we could not build CVN. What is needed is compromise.
Some years ago the Captain of Ark Royal reckoned that the capacity of a modern CV was one aircraft per 1,000 tons. On that basis he said the QE could have 65 aircraft. Clearly we have compromised - big carrier, smaller air group.