CVA-01 was more than an affordability question

Was CVA-01 simply unaffordable?

No: the argument distinguishes the viable earlier programme from later assessments made after the supporting industrial base had been lost.

Later claims of unaffordability came from a different industrial context, after the ability to build such carriers had been allowed to decline. The Treasury's wider calculation included money circulating through the domestic economy, while political leaders preferred to fund other strategic priorities. The proposed RAF strike force was itself later cancelled, so one completed capability did not durably replace the other. Carriers were expensive, and the timing, industrial capacity, and institutional priorities changed the decision.