Britain's replacement of four flight decks with two leaves little redundancy when one carrier has even a modest technical interruption. Concentrating capability into fewer hulls means that the loss of one deck removes a much larger share of the available force. Individual carrier capability cannot compensate for too few decks to absorb maintenance, training, and unexpected defects. An apparently minor problem aboard one ship can affect availability at the national level.
Notable Point · 3:21:13-3:21:31
Two carriers leave little margin for availability
Reducing the Royal Navy from four flight decks to two makes even a minor maintenance problem visible at the level of national operations.