Modern Elmo
"But there is actually a solution, and it doesn't need any more money than is there already.
Simply upgrade the carriers to include catapults and wires. Buy the cheaper US Navy arrester-hook version of the F-35, not the expensive and probably troublesome jumpjet. Buy nice cheap carrier radar planes, as lots of people do worldwide. All this will actually cost less over time than the current jumpjet ships and custom rotary-wing radarcraft plans"
Interesting that you picked that paragraph to mock.
I don't agree with Lewis on everything, and as always his attention to detail is not as good as his overview in my opinion, but you would find few to argue with the paragraph above. Political considerations aside, Cat and Trap, Carrier variant F35 and E2 would be our dream result.