A carrier is only as flexible as the air wing it sustains

The carrier platform itself remains highly capable. It combines air defense, command, intelligence, medical support, engineering, maintenance, stores, and ordnance facilities to sustain an embarked force. Those systems translate into combat flexibility through the aircraft operating from the deck. Every airframe remains constrained by physics and by the personnel operating it, whether they are aboard or controlling it remotely. Reducing the number of aircraft types therefore reduces the carrier's practical adaptability even when the ship retains all of its supporting infrastructure.