It was a purely financial decision, same as when the previous carriers were ordered STOVL to save money, and same as when their predecessors were converted from CATOBAR to STOVL (in that case upgrading them to be compatible with newer generations of CATOBAR aircraft was deemed prohibitively expensive). The government thinking has always been that it's better to cheap out on the carrier and then buy more expensive (albeit less capable) aircraft as that way you can spread the cost out more. Obviously it has kicked us in the backside on multiple occasions (I.E Argentina would never have set foot on the Falklands if we had multiple carriers loaded with F-14s instead of harriers).Very Interesting! I always thought that the short sighted descision to go with ramps instead of CATOBAR was a mistake.
IIRC when the Con-Dem coalition came to power in 2010 they ordered a study into the cost of switching the then under construction carriers to CATOBAR, the cost combined with how far along the STOVL construction was made changing financially unviable. However the fact a major war has kicked off in Europe may now have made having decent aircraft carriers more of a financial priority.That would be a massive and extremely costly redesign job to retrofit to QE class. I do think it would be beneficial in the long run and would allow future aircraft purchases to be more flexible.
All the tanks/planes that Russia destroys are Ukrainian, especially the Russian onesRussian MoD posts video of a destroyed T80 and claims it is Ukrainian, but in the video is a dead Russian soldier on the tank with his Russian arm patch clearly visible
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](/styles/default/xenforo/vbSmilies/Normal/tongue.gif)
For anyone who doesn't get it, this is a call back to when they shot down their own Su-35 (may have been an Su-34) then claimed it was Ukrainian and they meant to do it (despite Ukraine having never owned such aircraft).
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