The design of the Queen Elizabeth class carriers provoked a lot of discussion. Eventually the option of modifying the design to take a variety of conventional aircraft was abandoned. As completed they can only operate the F35B and helicopters. We must hope for the best. It must be admitted, though, that a number of other navies have adopted the ‘ski-jump’ design for VSTOL aircraft. Most of these, however, are considerably smaller vessels. Large carriers are easier to equip with ‘cat and trap’ systems to launch and recover aircraft.

The Editor
The Times
2 September 2010

Sir,

Your correspondents (1st and 2nd September) have effectively demolished the plan to share aircraft carriers. There is another serious problem. We have chosen the wrong design. The new carriers’ ski-jump bows make it impossible to operate conventional aircraft. They will be restricted, over their planned 40 year life, to jets capable of vertical or short take-off and landing (VSTOL), and helicopters.

Real carriers operate conventional aircraft launched by catapults. We are building real carriers- our biggest ever – which cannot. That is a huge handicap. There is no need to restrict the big new carriers to VSTOL aircraft, with all their limitations, as there was with the miniature ‘Invincibles’.

The VSTOL F-35B, the only jet they will be able to operate, is burdened by the deadweight of its VSTOL gear. It remains uncertain whether the RN could even operate these complex American jets with complete independence. If the Americans decide against further VSTOL the carriers will have no aircraft to fly, as our own once-prolific industry appears to have abandoned new aircraft design. The option of the American F-18 (older, but cheaper than F-35), a navalised Typhoon or the French Rafale, and even the conventional navalised F-35C, is ruled out. And they could not even fly the conventional aircraft carried by French or American carriers although they could fly ours. So much for ‘sharing’.

That limitation makes carriers vulnerable. In the Falklands, ships were lost because the fleet had lost its capacity for airborne early warning. Now we rely on helicopters, an improvised and inferior substitute, unable to fly high, far or for long. The new carriers, as planned, cannot operate anything better.

Is it too late to modify the design and escape from this self-imposed trap?

Yours faithfully,

David Coleman