That is hilarious and depressing in equal measure. One of the much trumpeted features of the QE class is they were going to be modular and upgradable to cats and traps for little cost. When new govt tried to exercise that option turns out the upgrade would increase the cost of a ship by about a third or thereabouts.

It's also depressing how little we learned from the air war over the Falklands. Presumably because it was the Fleet Air Arm rather than the RAF. RAF contribution was the Vulcan raid which was a) ludicrous and b) needed our entire tanker fleet airborne to get one (ONE!) Vulcan, equipped with a 1948 design bomb sight, there.

Meanwhile the Harriers turned out to be rather good dogfighters as they could essentially be put in reverse (viffing [1]). Rather than selling them off to the USMC we should have kept them, and worked on modern replacements. There was even a supersonic Harrier design produced at the same time Hawker were flying the Harrier prototype.

Meant the Harrier was the most impressive display aircraft ever. Flying sideways, check. Bowing to the crowd, check.

[1] http://jalopnik.com/5715656/the-eeriness-of-viffing-a-harrie...

The video that should be in the article can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcPEvwHWu4g