The ship is part of the F35 air system. I think this is the key change to where we were in Joint Force Harrier where the ship was really just a delivery vehicle. The ship was just a runway.
The Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers are much more than that.
To my mind, nothing illustrates the dichotomy between RN and RAF doctrine better than these statements. The RN has always viewed embarked RW and FW aircraft as integrated components of a warship's weapons system, like its guns, missiles (including land-attack), torpedoes, CIS, EW, on board and off board sensors, etc.
Source: Defence Select Committee, Session 1999-00, Tenth Report
Date: 6 July 2000
Witnesses: Sir Robert Walmesley (CDP) and Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham (first Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Equipment Capability).
The Future Carrier and the Future Carrier Borne Aircraft
.......A carrier is not a complicated ship, it is basically a big box with a big hangar inside it and a flat deck and a sufficient degree of command and control arrangements to enable the ship to communicate, as it has to. It is not going to have lots of other weapons. It is not full of systems like a destroyer that is stuffed full of the most complicated electronics, etc.. When you go on board a carrier it is basically empty, it is just a box. What is complicated is the aeroplane. I do not want to allow us to create an impression in your minds that the construction of the ship is an immense technological achievement.....