CVA-01 cancellation and the Harrier substitute

The Royal Navy still required air defence and strike aviation after CVA-01 was cancelled and the ageing Ark Royal and Eagle disappeared. Policy made an explicit replacement difficult to admit because doing so would expose the capability lost through the earlier decision. The Harrier offered a way to combine fighters with helicopter-heavy ships presented primarily as anti-submarine platforms. Those ships could protect North Atlantic forces while restoring limited organic air defence and strike reach. Their political packaging concealed continuity in the underlying naval requirement.