Hulahoop,
Good, valid, sensible points. Unfortunately our politicians would appear to be on a cost saving drive that takes absolutely no notice of defence requirements. Cost is all. It would make more sense, to me, to actually operate the carriers to their optimum. What a waste to deploy with only twelve aircraft, whether it be for training or actual deployment for security reasons. You have all these personnel, support vessels, POL, food stuff etc being used, just for twelve aircraft. What is the up time going to be on the F-35? Certainly there will be some training and experience obtained from training with twelve aircraft, but not as much as with fourty aircraft.