CVA-01

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The CVA-01 Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier was designed to replace the five old World War II-built aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy in the 1960s - ships like Ark Royal. Displacing over 50,000 tons and with capacity for up to 50 modern aircraft, they would have allowed the Royal Navy to maintain its significant position in carrier aviation. But the project was cancelled, along with the proposed Type 82 destroyers that would have escorted them, in the 1966 Defence White Paper, due to interservice rivalries, the huge cost of the proposed carriers, and the difficulties they would have presented in construction, operation, and maintenance. Had these ships been built, it is likely they would have been named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Duke of Edinburgh. The British government instead decided to order 50 F-111K bombers from the United States, only to be cancelled in early 1968 when Britain's withdrawal from East of Suez was announced. The F-111Ks were to be based on the islands in the Indian Ocean and Singapore in what became known as the Island Strategy or Island Stance.

The Royal Navy did not totally surrender aircraft carrier capability, the first of the Invincible class carriers were ordered in 1973. Carefully named "through-deck command cruisers (TDCC)" to avoid the stigma of great expense attached to full-size aircraft carriers, these 20,000 tons ships had nothing like the fixed-wing aviation capacity of the planned CVA-01 carrier, but were to function as part of mixed NATO fleets primarily on Cold War anti-submarine patrols of the eastern Atlantic. They could still carry fixed wing aircraft in the form of the V/STOL Sea Harrier jets which allowed the Royal Navy to deploy aircraft in the Falklands War.

The United Kingdom has returned to the fleet aircraft carrier idea, with current designs of the Royal Navy CVF programme which are larger than the cancelled CVA-01 fleet of the 1960s. It is interesting to note that the two new carriers are to be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

[edit] Projected specifications

Displacement:	54,500 tons standard
Length:	271 m
Beam:	37 m
Draught:	10.2 m
Propulsion:	3 × Parsons steam turbines providing 135,000 hp
Speed:	28 knots (52 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	3,250 crew and airgroup
Armament:	1 x 2 Sea Dart GWS 30 SAM launcher
Electronics:	1 x Type 988 Anglo-Dutch 'Broomstick' 3D radar (later fitted on the Royal Netherlands Navy frigates Tromp and De Ruyter); 2 x Type 909 Sea Dart fire control radar/illuminator; ADAWS-3 combat direction system
Aircraft:	Up to 50 aircraft; Initial planned airgroup: 18 x Phantom FG.1; 18 x Buccaneer S.2; 4 x Gannet AEW.3; 5 x Sea King HAS.1; 2 x Wessex HAS.1 (SAR) [plus probably 1 x Gannet COD.4]