Regional and global medium powers such as Britain and France cannot simply opt out of commitments beyond their immediate waters. Organic naval air power is therefore valuable, although its costs and specialist choices remain acute. CATOBAR carriers are compared with STOBAR and STOVL arrangements, which are much more common internationally, while CATOBAR brings additional construction and running costs. Post-war navies often acquired British light fleet carriers because they could be crewed more economically and were familiar to former wartime users of British equipment.
Chapter · 22:37-33:38
Carrier choices for medium powers
Medium powers face especially sharp carrier trade-offs because overseas commitments remain even when their resources fall short of superpower scale.