• AIRCRAFT carriers without combat jets are indeed pointless (The Daily Mail, September 21) – however it is the RAF that leads on tri-service aircraft procurement and pilot training.

Aircraft carriers with a full complement of aircraft are essential weapons systems for the defence of British interests worldwide, but this has had little RAF support since the 1920s.

The “Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force” was formed in 1924 and naval aviation was not again under Admiralty control until 1939.

The RAF’s mismanagement of naval aviation pre-war left the Royal Navy ill-prepared, although naval aviators flew outdated Fairey Swordfish biplanes brilliantly throughout the war.

The operational flexibility of carrier-borne aviation was obvious when, in the Falklands War, weeks after naval Sea Harrier operations began, RAF Harriers joined a carrier.

RAF support for naval aviation today is lukewarm at best, witness its preference for combat jets unsuitable for carrier operations, its failure to advance procurement of the F-35B for aircraft carriers and the consequent delay in standing up 809 Naval Air Squadron until at least 2024, let alone serious delays training naval aviators.

Eight combat jets in HMS Queen Elizabeth affords some operational utility but a full complement of aircraft is, of course, preferable.

In 2021 she embarked squadrons of British and American F-35Bs, allies work together at sea.

One hundred years of history make clear that naval aviation should be controlled by the Royal Navy – the RAF, which operates some 50 per cent of front-line aircraft and has limited knowledge of sea warfare, is best not involved.

LESTER MAY, NW1
Lieutenant Commander
Royal Navy, retired