"Why only six Harriers? A CVS can operate up to 18."
Unfortunately by late last year the forces had taken measures which meant that the Harrier fleet would have been unable to generate that many aircraft. I also strongly doubt that the UK had sufficient carrier qualified pilots to support an 18 strong det, given that in the preceding 10 years or so, the biggest deployment I think was done comprised about 10-12 harriers, and that was before SHAR left service.
Talk of saying 'but we could be using 18 harriers' is like saying 'but we could regenerate vulcan and do another black buck' - it simply couldnt have been done with the resources available.
Thats one of the reasons why Harrier was such an easy target in SDSR - a tired fleet, being run purely to maintain carrier seedcorn capability and with a very low FE@R from 2009 onwards - it was a no brainer of epic proportions.
Yes it was a great aircraft, and yes its sad that we're not using it anymore, but we have no money and unfortunately it was a nice to have, not a need to have.