STOVL decks trade aircraft performance for wider fleet availability

Should a future British carrier adopt CATOBAR if the next aircraft generation is designed for it?

For a medium power, retaining STOVL can let several carriers and amphibious decks share the same aircraft and sustain wider availability.

A medium naval power should judge launch systems across the whole deployable fleet. A STOVL aircraft and ski-ramp approach could let both dedicated carriers and amphibious ships provide fixed-wing decks. France instead chose a nuclear CATOBAR carrier alongside separate helicopter carriers. CATOBAR supports different aircraft and payloads, while concentrating fixed-wing aviation on one specialized hull creates a different readiness and global-presence tradeoff.