As far as I am aware there is not one single senior Naval officer that has had any experience of serving aboard a conventional aircraft carrier? (question) yes we have pilots who are fortunate enough to deploy on US carriers but have any of these reached the dizzy heights of flag rank? I am CERTAIN that no Royal Air Force pilot has served on a conventional carrier and they will definitely have no idea of what this type of ship can bring to both the military and political table.
I have an open mind on who should command these vessels be they ex aviators or not as this decision is not as straight forward as it might first appear. A US carrier group will always have an experienced Admiral in command, this person is responsible for 'spreading the word and political power of the United States of America'. British carriers do sometimes embark a flag officer but there are times when the captain is in sole command of the carrier and its Air Group, so this officer has to be an all round switched on kiddy, both militarily and politically. If it is an ex aviator, then so be it, but it has to be the very best man for the job, be they ex wafoo, ex submariner or current General Service.
The other point I find boring is this sensitive skin that is continually cropping up on here and other threads. Every single Royal Navy contributor of any substance has to a man recognized the professionalism of their light blue counter part, every single man jack of them has said this. BUT they have also quite correctly pointed out that the nitty gritty air combat has been fought from our carriers! They have never and will never say it has been the sole domain of the Fleet Air Arm, they are simply saying that the pilots have been embarked aboard a floating airfield and boy has this fact caused issues.
The conventional carrier is not cheap, no one has pretended otherwise but as I keep saying, how many operational fast jet squadrons are there in the UK and what are they doing? Can it be a total ignorance of what the conventional carrier brings to the table that has seen these recent decisions being made in the way they have?