ABSTRACT
The history of the United Kingdom's strategic relationship with large-deck aircraft carriers has been difficult at best. The narratives of the CVA01 fleet aircraft carrier programme and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier programme more recently show that Britain has understood the strategic value of carrier-based aviation but continues to wrestle with its cost. The development of the Queen Elizabeth-class ships has been protracted and fraught with uncertainty. The programme was launched by the Labour government in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR). One of the most curious aspects of the UK's defence policy debate is the argument that large aircraft carriers embarking fast jets are Cold War relics'. The carrier debate has its roots embedded in British foreign policy. A project as large as the carrier programme will inevitably attract a significant degree of military, political and public scrutiny. Cancelling the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers would be a strategic disaster for the Royal Navy.
