Should the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers have used CATOBAR?
Short answerCATOBAR offers wider aircraft choice, but STOVL lets Britain share aircraft across carriers and possible ski-jump LHDs, improving fleet availability and flexibility.
NotesCATOBAR is the strongest pure engineering solution because it supports the widest range of aircraft. That advantage still has to be weighed against the number and variety of flight decks Britain could sustain. Ski-jump LHDs could share STOVL aircraft with Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, creating a larger pool of hulls for strike and amphibious missions. That interchangeability matters because wars do not wait for one specialized carrier to finish maintenance. A medium power may benefit from ships that are highly effective in a primary role while retaining enough secondary capability to keep the fleet available and adaptable.