This is a picture from 1982:
CVS/Sea King/Sea Harrier were designed purely for sea control type operations as part of NATO and in the NATO area, but they also gave us an out of area capability. That picture is from this story on the RN site about the youngest ASW Sea King Pilot who went South in 1982 still serving in the RN today.
Below is a video about the second of the Invincible class, HMS Illustrious, and how she was completed something like a year ahead of a schedule, commissioned at sea, did operational sea training, and was able to relieve Invincible in August 1982 - providing air defence with her Sea Harriers until the Sappers lengthened the runway at Stanley enough for RAF Phantoms. She is fitted with the newly acquired Phalanx system and has AEW Sea Kings embarked.
Her CO, Captain Jock Slater (later an Admiral and First Sea Lord), gives an acceptance speech in which he comments on the value of the carriers to the Western Alliance and the increasing maritime threat.
Ten Sea Harriers, Nine ASW Sea Kings, and two AEW Sea Kings...
Am I right in thinking that we have put 800 and 801 NAS to sea with ten or twelve jets to sea in the event of a Cold War crisis?
Invincible carried twelve Sea Harriers during the Falklands War, as well as her nine ASW Sea Kings, and a couple of Lynx equipped as Exocet decoys. Having a standard air group and reinforcing it during a crisis was an idea proposed in the 1960s with CVA-01, with possible reinforcement with the aircraft resulting from the P1127 project. It remains relevant to this day, with talk of having a number of jets embarked routinely and ramping this up during a crisis. This is only possible with STOVL carriers and VSTOL aircraft.