Hi Not a Boffin,
Sorry for causing any confusion but the suggestion for an all singing LHA would be as a replacement for our older vessels and they would carry the exact same complement of 35's as the QEC carrier.
The 'assumption' I am allegedly guilty of is not mine but that of our illustrious Minister for Defence who was speaking at the Chief of the Air Staff's Air Power Conference at the Royal United Services Institute. He states the carriers will deploy with an air wing of between 8 - 12 aircraft.
I would NEVER compare our carrier capability with that of the United States Navy but I am guilty of comparing these carriers with our old 1960's ships that did have air to air, air to ground, AWAC, COD, tanking capibilty and of course anti submarine helicopter capability. Yes I may have rose tinted glasses but during their era were they the World's most advanced carriers with cutting edge technology? The only nuclear carrier was the USS Enterprise and although she carried an air force on her decks, we could launch aircraft far quicker and get them back as safe as that larger ship. I TOTALLY accept we never deployed with anything like a battle group and quite clearly we never will be able to. (what we never had, we will never miss)