Originally Posted by Jimlad1
As usual we send a carrier because its the best unit for the job, despite there being an RAF base only a few hundred miles away. Yet more evidence as to why carriers are essential in the modern world.
Ain't it great- we can sit offshore and support, while the RAF is unable to land at the airport with its much vaunted 24/7 capability due to it being bombed. Red faces in Strike perchance?
What is this as usual. I am trying to think about the last time we used a carrier for a NEO (not in the last 20 years anyway). Last one was Ivory Coast (no carrier), Sierra Leone (no carrier for the NEO - albeit one turned up later), Eritrea (no carrier), Democratic Republic of Congo (3 deployents, no actual evacuation - no carrier (albeit that Kinshasa is c400km from the sea).