A domestic one-off asks suppliers to produce equipment they may rarely build, sometimes for the first and only time. Facilities and instruction manuals cannot give workers the familiarity that comes from repeating the job. The comparison with restarting capital-ship gun production warns that early batches could fail while operators regain their judgment of the process. French construction in separated batches is offered as one explanation for Charles de Gaulle's difficulties. PA2 was intended as a Queen Elizabeth-derived second French carrier with CATOBAR launch and recovery, potentially preserving experience and adding availability. Its cancellation left France with the single carrier.
Chapter · 25:48-29:26
The cost of a one-off domestic carrier and the lost PA2
The programme shows why rarely built domestic systems are vulnerable to expensive mistakes, and why a second French carrier would have mattered beyond simple numbers.