Well, we did have the Fairey Gannet, an extraordinarily capable ASW/AEW aircraft, with superb loiter capabilities when one engine was shut down, but they were scrapped by Tony Benn.
Shortly after, we had the Falklands conflict, and had to cobble together a radar bolted to the side of a Sea King helicopter.
Genius move, Tony
Not entirely fair, for the Gannet required a catapult to launch from a carrier, the last of our catapult carriers was retired in 1978 because it was basically knackered. The three “carriers” that replaced Ark Royal carried neither catapults nor arrester gear, so the only aircraft capable of using them would be VTOL/VSTOL, hence the Sea Harrier and helicopters.
Our two new Queen Elizabeth carriers also have no catapults or arrester gear, so we’ll have the same problem of how we facilitate beyond the horizon radar and sensor coverage.
The reasons why our new carriers don’t have catapults and arrester gear – despite being designed with fitment of them in mind – are maddening. Apparently British Aerospace were looking at refitting both our carriers prior to them being commissioned and the costs rapidly escalated. One of the reasons for this was that BAe were concerned that the government would cancel the order for F-35s and instead order F-18Es or French Rafale Ms, either of which would be substantially cheaper and would carry more ordinance than the F-35B or C variants.
