The scenario allows roughly three or four weeks of escalating tension, comparable to the Falklands mobilization. Atlantic Conveyor drew on Britain's historical escort-carrier experience and likely generic conversion plans that could be tailored to an available hull. That preparation makes rapid merchant flight decks plausible, even though each ship would still require individual engineering work. The harder ceiling is aviation, because NATO can find more suitable hulls than spare Sea Harriers, helicopters, pilots, and maintainers. Retained aircraft intended for India might therefore be pressed into service to intercept Soviet shadowers instead of fighting front-line Soviet fighters.
Notable Point · 1:13:18-1:37:33
Preplanned merchant-carrier conversions meet an aircraft bottleneck
Falklands-era conversion experience could put helicopter decks on merchant hulls within weeks, but Sea Harriers, helicopters, and trained crews would limit how many useful carriers NATO could field.