Experienced people like Engines will be able to give first hand thoughts, but I imagine the Hermes Captain had a lot on his plate, not least being uncertain how his mixed bag of immature aircraft were going to perform; and very aware that he had no AEW.
I’m not sure how long it went on, but there used to an annual ‘Exercise Hardy Crab’ whereby the RAF deployed on CVSs. One of the things we in RN HQ had to ensure was the RAF Harriers were loaned the radar enhancement transponders that were routinely fitted to FAA aircraft. For some reason, RAF HQ didn’t buy any, and we would never get them back! Probably flogged on the German black market. (The Army bought their own for Lx AH1).
The trouble was, shelf stock had to be exercised every 6 months, which used to be done at RNARW Copenacre until the Naval Air Radio Stores Integration in 1986, when AMSO took over. Also, first line had to check the frequency every 100 hours, using test equipment only the RN had, mostly at sea. None of this was carried out to the loaned kit, they fell into disrepair, and there was a constant stream of contracts to buy replacements. I would staff the Board Submissions for ‘Transponders’ and the MoD(PE) project manager would add ‘Sets’, boosting the value of the contract with feeders, looms, antennae, controllers we didn’t need. He always insisted he thought I’d just forgotten. For some extraordinary reason, he was offered a job by the company when he retired.
Operating from a CVS without them was a significant risk. Perhaps Middleton was thinking of little details like that?