Future Carrier (Including Costs)

[Asturias56]

Originally Posted by Biggus

The UK F-35 fleet is triple, or even quadruple hatted, in terms of meeting UK defence missions in time of war.

So, even if we do get the full 138 order, which I personally very much doubt, I don't think we will often see a sizable chunk of the UK fleet on board a carrier, apart from major exercises planned several years in advance.

from
:-HoC Defence Committe Report. First Report - Ready for War? - 4th Feb 2024

59. Professor Justin Bronk also raised the issue of F-35 fleet size, describing the F-35 force as “triple or quadruple-hatted in terms of how many parts of UK defence are counting on it for how many mission outputs in the case of a war [and] … there are not very many of them.