Originally Posted by
LowObservable
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, one could say "but wait, STOVL lets me operate from mini-carriers". But when you define your carrier-air mission such that you want to do defensive CAP and air-to-ground missions concurrently, and your airplane is F-4-sized, this no longer applies.
I recently watched a 3 part series on the QE ("Rise of the Supercarrier) on the Smithsonian channel - I suspect it's the same thing you got in the UK earlier as it was created by the BBC. Interesting and informative - we've really not heard all that much about the two new British carriers on this side of the pond.
But it does beg the question - the primary advantage of STOVL is it allows for a much smaller carrier. But the Queen Elizabeth is
huge - even by aircraft carrier standards. Yea, it's smaller than the American Nimitz and new Ford class, but it's much larger than the WWII vintage carriers. So why not provide it with cat/trap capabilities?