HNS for Sierra Leone?
Yes you'd have needed a boat for the helicopters to operate from.
And there was no HNS for FJs, of course.
Apart from the Squadron of Jags (sorry) sitting on the Azores all ready to fly into Dakar, which could have got there first.....?
Instead, they waited for the carrier and its Harriers which were then limited to 1,000-lb bombs (too indiscriminate to use), and whose inability to strafe meant that their most effective weapon was "Noise!"
A carrier is a good (if expensive and slow) way of deploying a wing of 36 JSF, and of supporting and sustaining a paltry number of sorties for the five days required......