With respect Jacko and Orac, you are both missing the point. Carriers and the FAA don't replace the RAF and landbases, they supplement them. In fact they supplement each other. The US, France, Russia, Brazil, Spain and Italy certainly think so. The CVS are too small, that is why they are being replaced with CVF, which in defence terms hould be considered a joint asset. In fact that is how they will be operated. The Navy does the driving and some of the flying, joined where appropriate by the RAF and maybe the AAC.
When you ask a country for HNS, particularly if its poor as most of them are in trouble spots, there is always a price to pay, financially or politically. With a carrier, there's no price to pay. That's why the Americans like them and why we want them. Think forwards not backwards.