Its official...
Prolonged Libya effort unsustainable, warns Navy chief | UK news | guardian.co.uk
First Sea Lord
"It's cheaper to fly an aircraft from an aircraft carrier than from the shore."
This 'sharky' type logic is surely misleading.
I can't see how the overall costs of a carrier based asset vs a land based asset can possibly be cheaper - unless you're not comparing like with like (i.e. ignoring the costs of the ship etc.).
I don't think these kind of statememts are acceptable - carrier aviation is a potentially brilliant capability - but lets not pretend it is cheap.