You don’t cut off the umbilical cord until after taking breaths on your own. Get the order wrong, and you risk suffocating yourself before you figure out how to breathe.
Anyone making the “cut the umbilical” argument needs to prove to all of the listeners that you know what NATO provides your military before you sever interoperability with NATO.
The core problem with the UK is they chose not to run US-sized super carriers. UK only has shorter carriers which have ramps instead of catapults. UK carrier-based aircraft need VTOL to carry a decent payload/fuel load, which means the US Navy variant of the F-35 (requires a catapult) is not a candidate, only the US Marines variant (has VTOL drivetrain). This isn’t a sufficient reason to either leave NATO or source all military weapons domestically (which they can’t currently do).
But it’s apt.
You don’t cut off the umbilical cord until after taking breaths on your own. Get the order wrong, and you risk suffocating yourself before you figure out how to breathe.
Anyone making the “cut the umbilical” argument needs to prove to all of the listeners that you know what NATO provides your military before you sever interoperability with NATO.
The core problem with the UK is they chose not to run US-sized super carriers. UK only has shorter carriers which have ramps instead of catapults. UK carrier-based aircraft need VTOL to carry a decent payload/fuel load, which means the US Navy variant of the F-35 (requires a catapult) is not a candidate, only the US Marines variant (has VTOL drivetrain). This isn’t a sufficient reason to either leave NATO or source all military weapons domestically (which they can’t currently do).
It's not the size of the carriers - it's the lack of catapults that are the problem.
I mentioned the lack of catapults. But it’s both. Either a longer runway OR a catapult would support a heavier load.
Instead, UK carriers depend on VTOL aircraft, which reduces the selection of fixed wing to select from.