So let me get this right, UK plc has taken a decision to invest about £5 billion on potent warships... [which]..instead of patrolling and cruising the world’s oceans with a potent air wing they will spend most of their operational service just carrying a few helicopters, whilst the aircraft that gives them their capability operate as a Tornado replacement for the RAF in the UK?
Full carrier-based power projection with all that that entails was a big stretch for our resources when it was announced, and the economy was riding the wave of credit-fuelled affluence at that time. Now that bubble has burst, we are trying to prolong the dream with a fraction of the available resources we had at the outset. It is all being done on a shoestring as Squirrel 41 said. The project is staggering through the recession, battered by financial, political and technical headwinds. I guess the hope (plan?) is that enough of it comes out the other side sufficiently intact as a usable platform. Then the elements that true CEPP requires can be added and refined when we can better afford them.
As well as brains and hard graft, a run of good fortune would not go amiss. And UK plc's economy starting to grow again would be mighty welcome too.