"Carriers need escorts. Escorts also get hit. Now we really are talking numbers.
There was the one the Echo 2 hit in the Med. There was the one that got dhowed in Aden. There was the one, capable of 30 kts that had to shoot down an aircraft doing 400 kts.
I am sure there are more incidents where the presence of the carrier caused the escorts to stand in harms way. I don't mention the FI of course"
Escorts would exist regardless of whether a carrier is there or not. Love to know more about this echo two incident. The Aden one happened in a port when alongside, which sadly ships have to do.
How many airfields have been mortared, bombed or overrun in the past 60 years? How many airmen killed through terrorists or the like? I think you'll find its far more than the number of ships attacked. The problem is that some in the RAF fail to understand that the carrier and the escort complement each other, rather than one requiring the other as its raison d'etre.