With Britain's Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers not due to enter service for nearly a decade and talk of strong new threats to carriers emerging, Dr Lee Willett, Head of RUSI's Maritime Studies programme, examines their viability
The United Kingdom's two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers survived the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) – but only just. Despite the demonstrable strategic value of two highly flexible flat-topped ships in meeting a range of UK tasks from the high end to the low end of the spectrum, the carriers' fate hung in the balance right until the very end of the review. Even today, their fate may still not be secure. Despite carriers' demonstrated utility in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Lebanon, Haiti and the ash cloud, questions continue to be asked about their strategic value.
These questions generally can be grouped under two broad assumptions. The first is that they are expensive, inflexible Cold War relics. Yet £5bn to build two ships which can show the strategic flexibility to adapt to a range of circumstances and conflicts over up to 50 years of life demonstrates extremely good value for money. For example, the US Navy carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is 49 years old, has more deployments due, and has seen active service during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and Afghanistan – each a different crisis requiring a different response.
