Its not about capability, its affordability
If you re-read my post I don’t think you will see that I was questioning the need to defend the Task Group. I was merely asking how much of our resource (T45, dedicated AD aircraft) would be spent on defending it rather than projecting from it. My thesis is that by the time we find out what we can afford we will have very little left to project.
I am not anti Carrier, when you have the resources of the USN you clearly have a potent capability – again my argument is can we the UK afford it? The Harrier decision clearly implied that we couldn’t for at least 10 years – what chances a boost from the treasury in the next few years to make our books balance?
At the moment, based on projected plans, we will only be able to be operational for 6 months in 24 – that’s a lot of money for not very much. We would all agree that you would need at least 3 carriers to provide 365 days a year coverage (and we know we can’t afford that, or even 2). Hopefully our enemies won’t be watching our dockyards…