How Ark Royal could have bridged to CVA-01

The 1966 decision ended replacement planning even though the Audacious-class Ark Royal remained in service until 1979. One counterfactual has new carriers arriving at intervals through the 1970s and into the early 1980s. That sequence would have allowed the Royal Navy to transfer experience and equipment from the old carrier force rather than rebuild fixed-wing aviation after a gap. The passage presents fleet renewal as a managed transition problem instead of a choice between keeping every old ship and buying an entirely new force at once.