HMS Queen Elizabeth (and HMS Prince of Wales) belong in the STOL carrier section as the choice to equip them with EMALS has been cancelled.
Because:
- It's cheaper not to in initial cost and with the projected life life time costs are approximately even, and so we take the cheaper up front
- Only two of our ports are really equipped for nuclear vessels: Faslane and Devonport. We don't want to base the carrier in Faslane (and I'm not sure it could transit the Clyde anyway) and Devonport is at capacity with the submarines. For anyone who says "oh, but American carriers dock in Portsmouth, so that's wrong!" - yes, they dock, temporarily. There is no shoreside infrastructure to deal with nuclear vessels (including the consequences of an accident) long term, especially when the QEC class will be there ~1/3rd of each year
- It limits where we can visit, including the Falklands, as South America is supposedly a nuclear free zone. The last thing we need if we're kicking up a fuss sending it down there is all the other SA countries lumping in with Argentina because we've pissed them off.
