Originally Posted by
Asturias56
"not having jets embarked does not mean there are doing useful things,"
true but a proper Helicopter carrying vessel would have cost a lot less. The elephant in the room currently is what chance is there that the RAF/RN will get enough new F-35's to use the carriers for their originally intended purpose. Withe talk of freezing the Defence Budget for 5 years it starts to look difficult.
Operating ASW helicopters and supporting constant ASW operations by the task group is a carrier role, and was intended to be one of the roles of CVF from the start of the design process. The Royal Navy has operated ASW helicopters from carriers alongside fixed wing aircraft since the late 1950s.