A 30,000-ton CVA-01 alternative

What would the Royal Navy have looked like with the proposed 30,000-35,000-ton CVA-01 alternative?

As a conventional carrier it would still be too compromised, but as an enlarged Invincible-type STOVL carrier it could carry a much stronger air group and earlier airborne warning.

Under the requirements of the period, a 30,000-35,000-ton conventional carrier was judged too small to carry a satisfactory air group. A ship of that size would therefore still face pressure toward STOVL aviation. Applied instead to the Invincible class, the larger displacement suggests a hypothetical standard load of about 24 Sea Kings and 24 Harriers. The extra capacity also raises the possibility that helicopter airborne early warning would have been ready before the Falklands War. In that counterfactual, more fighters and earlier warning could substantially change both British ship losses and Argentine aircraft losses. Such a result would also change perceptions of helicopter airborne early warning.