The unrealized plan to replace four amphibious ships with two LHDs

What force was supposed to replace Illustrious and Ocean in the helicopter-carrier role?

A later LHD program was expected to provide two or three ships, with two likely replacing Ocean, Illustrious, Albion, and Bulwark together.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales were meant to enter service before a separate landing-helicopter-dock program followed. Two or perhaps three LHDs were discussed as the eventual amphibious and third-carrier force. In the likely two-ship version, they would replace HMS Ocean, HMS Illustrious, HMS Albion, and HMS Bulwark while combining flight decks with docking facilities. The plan shows why deleting aviation space from the Albion class looked more tolerable when a larger supporting fleet still appeared likely.