The RAF did not simply win while the Royal Navy lost in 1966. Once CVA-01 could be cancelled, RAF officers had reason to doubt that the promised F-111 force would survive, especially with Polaris ending the V-force's nuclear role and Nimrod taking maritime patrol work. Official questioning encouraged the Navy to justify carriers through east-of-Suez operations before the government used withdrawal from that region against them. A later Harrier example shows the same pattern: a requested list of improvements was recast as a catalogue of defects. The broader lesson is that a review designed around a financial target can select evidence to justify capability cuts while presenting them as strategic conclusions.
Chapter · 2:30:09-2:34:41
How east-of-Suez framing shaped the carrier cut
The review's questions tied Royal Navy carrier evidence to east-of-Suez missions and then used withdrawal from that region to remove the capability.