Originally Posted by
peter we
There was no requirement, of any sort, for catapults in the signed contract.
'fitted for but not with' was something invented by a politician after the event.
I don't think any politician invented this at all - do you have a cite for that?.
I'm not familiar with the detailed QEC contract terms, but "fitted for but not with" has been a fairly common concept in UK and US military equipment for decades. In my time on the Harrier programme well had this concept for fitments like TIALD, the "big" (mk107) engine and numerous pieces of assorted avionics. The MOD only bought 40 mk107 engines, and a core part of the GR9/9A upgrade programme ensured that every airframe was fitted
for the big engine even though at any given time only 20-25 aircraft would actually have one installed (making them GR9As rather than GR9s). If the big engine was taken out of an aeroplane and the small one installed it became a GR9 again.
It would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that the design configuration of the QECs explicitly made provision for fitting cats and/or ski-jumps at some later date simply because it would have been sensible to do so, in the same way HMS Ocean's design allowed for the possibility being re-roled as a Harrier platform.
PDR