Yemen
Firstly, it’s a long way from Cyprus to Yemen so well done to the folks involved in this mission and those supporting it.
Next, it was of course only a matter of time before a retired Fish head wrote to the Times demanding to know why we have not dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea. Whilst I rarely agree with anything retired senior naval officers say it is in this case a valid question so I thought I would start speculating on reasons why not. Semi serious perhaps but all contributions valid!
The obvious ones, we don’t have enough aircraft, we don’t have enough crews, neither are combat ready. The aircraft don’t yet have clearance to drop anything, we are concerned that we don’t have enough escort vessels to prevent the carrier getting hit by a missile.
All these points are pure speculation but the carriers take a HUGE chunk of the defence budget so if we don’t use then now what’s the point?