and the recent Illustrious refit allegedly removed much of her ability to support fixed wing aircraft
You may have WEBF all over you like a rash with that comment. If this
is the case then it shows a pretty odd decision by the RN given recent comments about deckhand skills (apologies if that's the wrong terminology!). Or do they feel that handling FW aircraft on a carrier is a skill that can be easily re-learnt (which would be the opposite view to many posters on here .....) or can be kept 'current' through use of RW assets only?
And a Q for WEBF himself
We would therefore be in a far better position to provide air defence for a maritime task group
Isn't that what the T45's are for so that the embarked FW assets can get on doing the job they were designed for i.e attack?