The F-35C offers attractive strike range, yet converting the Queen Elizabeth class to CATOBAR after construction would be an expensive reversal. That choice sits beside earlier force-structure decisions to buy six rather than the desired twelve Type 45 destroyers and two rather than three carriers. A three-carrier fleet plus two land-based strike wings would require about 240 aircraft once operational squadrons, short-term maintenance, and deep-overhaul capacity are counted. Britain therefore has to make the existing carrier system work because changing the ship design and its support structure gets more expensive with time.
Notable Point · 52:01-54:11
A late CATOBAR conversion cannot cheaply undo force-structure choices
The F-35C's range may favor catapults, but changing course late is far costlier than funding the carrier, escort, and aircraft numbers coherently from the start.