Uk F4 Phantoms being tested on HMS Eagle 1969

[GeeRam]

I'm not so sure about cats and traps, they are a great option for a country like the US, who can afford to have a lot of fleet carriers and multiple air wings cycling in and out of operations and training.

It's a real problem if you only have a few squadrons of fast jets and a couple of carriers.

Keeping aircrew current and carrier qualified is nightmare, the pressure on the handful of qualified aircrew and there families would be enormous, probably enough for very high turnover and subsequently more strain on training.

We managed for nearly a decade with just the one carrier after Eagle was decommisioned.
And the French are managing it as well with just one, and doing cat n trap as well, and they developed their own fighter to fly off of it...! and that's why I think we've missed a trick by jumping into bed with the USMC rather than shared carrier support with an European ally.
Are we really going to do USMC style expedition warfare?

'If' they are properly funded to operate as intended, with four front line Lightening squadrons etc. A buy of the COD variant of the V22 for COD and AAR would be a massive force multiplier and close the gap between CTOL and STOVOL carriers.

We are never going to buy V22 for the UK........have you seen the costs of those things......!
The cost per per flying hour is even more than a F-22 Raptor.....!!
Only stuff like the C5 Galaxy, B52, B1B etc cost more per flying hour than a V22...!!