I know that I sound like a broken record but, i will say it again. Carriers ARE relevant to the present conflict. 30% of CAS effort in the Stan is conducted by the USN operating off carriers.
The reason the UK carrier option is so impotent is for a number of reasons. 1. They are too small.
2. The Flight decks are too small which means that the aircraft cannot carry the fuel/ordnance combination to make a difference over such a great distance.
3. Only GR7/9s can operate from CVS and they have been withdrawn, whilst the USN use FA18s.
I could probably have put that a little better: Just because our present carriers are't suitable for the current task, doesn't mean we should not procure the CVF.
Fully agree with everything you said above - the US carriers are proving their worth, and I am convinced that if we had CVF
right now they would be out their contributing in much the same way the CVNs are.
It is also very easy to dismiss our CVSs as as
, but for 29 years they have been doing far more than they were ever designed to do. They were supposed to be ASW helo-carriers (hence the lifts in the middle of the runway!) and the RN wasn't supposed to have any Aircraft Carriers at all when they were built.