The 2036 figure is risible - it's probably a lazy journo extrapolating a 2020 ISD for HMS "Chuck" and adding Commodore Steve Jermy's comment
"Once these carrier skills have gone they will take at least 16 years to build back up"
Equals 2036. Rubbish - should be 2022-24. And Harrier GR9 ops are hardly the same as Dave-C CATOBAR ops with the associated air defence, C4ISTAR, LO and deep strike capability.
I appreciate that there is all of the deck handling stuff, but that's about to disappear, for perfectly sensible reasons previously discussed here - if we have to go down to one of GR4 or GR9 for budgetary reasons, then the only sensible answer given current operations and quasi-strategic capabilities is to keep GR4.
S41