HMS Queen Elizabeth [Wikimedia Commons: UK Govt Open Government Licence Oglv1.0 Cropped]

• LET’S be plain, Lester May, Lieutenant Commander Royal Navy, retired, is fighting yesterday’s wars when he claims that: “Aircraft carriers with a full complement of aircraft are essential weapons systems for the defence of British interests worldwide…” (Navy needs aircraft, September 28).

Leaving aside the problem as to whether “British interests worldwide”, however so defined, need defending in the way Lester May asserts, the fact is that aircraft carriers are these days an obsolete weapon of war.

One of the reasons the Russian army is winning the war in Ukraine is that they are using precision-guided missiles, equipped with a high degree of accuracy, on a massive scale.

Quite bluntly, a seaborne defence / invasion force, particularly one with aircraft carriers, would be a sitting duck for such weaponry. In other words, Lester May should get back to the drawing board.

In addition, he is fond of citing the Falklands War. Two lessons need to be drawn from that conflict. The first is that the dispute between the UK and Argentina, regarding the status of the Falklands, could have been resolved diplomatically without a shot being fired. See Anthony Barnett’s Iron Britannia for the full story.

The second is that the war could have ended with an Argentine victory had their air force been using a full quota of Super Étendards originally supplied by the French.

One or two missiles did hit their targets, of course; the slaughter that would have ensued had the Argentines been better organised in that respect does not bear thinking about.

GLENN MEREDITH, SE14