Indeedy.
Apologies for thread drift here but recently I couldnt help but notice the contrasting responses to Europes' economic implosion.
The Brits elected to ditch the Harrier (oops, bit Freudian) but retain their flat-top.
The Spaniards have tied up their carrier but retained the jets, and are now operating them, perhaps with some difficulty, off something called the Juan Carlos I. Bit reminiscent of the Ocean.
Sorry, unable to post links or piccies, maybe someone else can oblige if so interested.
Anyway, bit daft asking this in an aviation forum, but which way would you have gone? Fraid I'm ignorant of the relative savings but would Lusty have been a fair cop in order to retain even a handful of SHARS?
Dunno