Can anyone answer some questions from a layman?
Does anyone know if a purchase of 48 F35B will provide enough aircraft to allow for the use of even one carrier at its maximum surge capacity of 34. I assume some aircraft will be permanently required for an OCU whilst others will be in maintenance at one time or another.
How long will Ocean last and are the new carriers likely to be used to fulfill her role once she has gone? If both carriers go into service are they ever likely to be available at the same time e.g. to use one with FW and the other with rotary or even a mixture on both, or will one always be in refit whilst the other is operational. If the latter is the case and Ocean isn't replaced where will we put our helicopters if we ever need to put 34 F35b on the one operational carrier?