Well, there's good and bad in this statement.
Good in that we're actually commited to building them.
Good that they have the angled flight decks and they're thinking ahead by leaving room for cats,.
Good that it's a British design and will be built here too.
Crew of only 1,400 for a 55,000 ton Ship is pretty impressive and will make life a lot more comfortable on board.
Conventionally powered (not nuc) could be a good idea but maybe not... we will see.
We're screwed for AEW coverage, the new system they've got flying about in a Sea King is supposed to be pretty hot but it is still flying around in a POS Sea King. Hawkeye is out because of the ramp on the bow, V22 is out.. maybe so we're probably going to end up relying on Merlin and Sea King with the 'bag'. Helicopters are pretty awful for AEW, not enough range and they don't fly high enough.
Still don't understand why the chose the STOVL JSF over the STOL one. Yes STOVL has advantages but the performance loss is prohibitive IMHO.
And finally we're not building enough of them, 3 would be better. That or build a couple more 'Ocean' class assault platforms.
Having spent a bit of time around our armed forces in the last few years the the British Navy has it's head screwed on pretty well, the RAF's head fell off about 5 years ago and they still haven't found it. The Army is doing what it does and doing it well but they could probably benefit the most from a bit more cash.
My £0.02
Gatso
