I have been told by those who know a lot that I don't (naval architects), that fitting arrestor gear to Queen Elizabeth would be relatively (??) simple (when an engineer says "relatively simple" I worry), quite feasible and not prohibitively expensive. The Indians have an ongoing discussion regarding Rafale because the French have said that Rafale is STOBAR capable and the Indians see it as usable on both their STOBAR and CATOBAR carriers. So I repeat, why not cut our losses, fit arrestors and buy Rafale? More to the point, it would mean that our carriers were capable then of embarking future aircraft that were STOBAR capable.