s that *IF* CVF is to be purchased
Sorry to disappoint you Squirrel, but CVF has been bought. The steel has been bought and cut and large parts of the ships are already being assembled having been delivered to Rosyth. The propulsion plant has been bought, most of the onboard systems have been bought, the only costs left are the wages of the 10000 plus UK jobs involved in constructing the ships and producing the accessories.
Queen Elizabeth will be built as STOVL, POW may be either STOVL or CTOL but will be built. The main questions are, will the ships be sold once built? What aircraft will fly off them? Dave/Rafale/F18/Marinated Typhoon? In the cold stark wind of SDSR, who knows what is going to happen but Dave of any variant is under threat IMHO. Lovely toy and a magnificent concept for all the reasons WEBF points out but...it is very expensive and there are far cheaper platforms that can do what is required at the moment, which is not Air Superiority but dropping bombs! Before anyone talks about the wonderful other capabilities of Dave...yes I know but there are once again cheaper ways of achieving such effect.
