Originally Posted by
Onceapilot
You have that opinion. Are the "swathes" wrong? Well, if you are talking American Carrier groups with strength in depth, then yes, that is a considerable capability. However, against a similarly capable adversary, they are always vulnerable to total elimination without having any effect. Moreover, the UK carriers do not offer a similar capability to a US Carrier group and represent a gross distortion of VFM against capability in the UK armoury.
OAP
So of course my opinion is yes, very wrong! The swathes are of course RAF peeps, both here and serving. That said I am given to believe there is some support in the light blue service, at the more working level!.
Your opinion is of course well covered here and I have no expectation of having you change your view.
My reference would be the number conflicts since WW 2 were the littoral has been key. Not to say we should arm for the last conflict, but CEPP provides options abd flexibility. The ships are Swiss Army knives. F35B gives flexibility, at some trade off. If you don’t get the need to be flexible and the importance of air power at sea, I guess you will never see the value of the trade off. As someone who has spent time at sea, I 100% see that value.