Chris

I think the decision has been more or less forced, sadly, thanks to decisions taken in office by Labour. The decision to build two ma-hoosive penis extension supercarriers and then equip them with fighters designed for light carriers (i.e. the Invincible class, one of which is still slated to remain rather pointlessly in service, sans aircraft, until 2014) was always rather batty. Liam Fox saw the logic of equipping supercarriers with aircraft designed to get the maximum benefit of their size and pursued orders for F35-C instead, accompanied with a plan to retro-fit the cats and traps to the carriers, but the fact is, retro-fitting that kit was always going to be more expensive than building it into the design from the drawing board and the cost has gone through the roof. The country can barely afford the carriers as it is; something had to give and I think they have now made the best of a bad job.

What should have happened from the outset was a decision either to build a new generation of light carriers with F35-Bs embarked, or one or two new supercarriers with F35-Cs and the attendant catapults and arrestors. Why Labour decided to mismatch STOVL aircraft with a supercarrier runway is anybody's guess, but now we're stuck with it.

The only possible consolation is that the most famous supercarrier of them all, USS Enterprise, has been in service now for more than 50 years. If our new QE-class carriers have anything like that longevity, they should live to see economically happier times and the next generation of aircraft to be stationed aboard them might just be 'proper' carrier fighters.