How many British aviation ships are enough?

How many aircraft carriers and supporting aviation ships does Britain need?

Three carriers and four ski-ramp LHDs can be justified at the high end, but two carriers with two or preferably three LHDs is a more realistic target.

The strategic maximum differs from a politically attainable force. Three carriers and four compatible LHDs would create the core of seven task groups and provide considerable resilience. That deliberately forceful case came from an earlier paper. For current planning, two carriers plus two LHDs would be acceptable, while a third LHD would provide a stronger balance of availability and amphibious capacity.