UK wastes six billion pounds on aircraft carriers

The British government just can't accept that the days of 'Britannia ruling the waves' were over long ago. It has been throwing more than six billion pounds at building two aircraft carriers – the first of which is HMS Queen Elizabeth. In many respects the Elizabeth class carriers are no superior to carriers of past ages – such as HMS Ark Royal from the second world war which was finally scrapped in 2013 The new carriers are not fitted with catapults. Nor will they have arrestor wires- in the interests of keeping down costs. The military capabilities of the carriers rely on the unproven technology of the US built joint strike fighter, the 35BLightning II which is supposed to have short take off and vertical landing capabilities. But the problem is that many technical hurdles are still to be overcome before the planes can be operational. Britain has no plan B after scrapping its force of Sea Harriers and RAF ground-attack Harriers.Typhoon combat jets aren't designed for use on aircraft carriers. Even if they were, they’d need a catapult and arresting wires. Amongst the many technical problems to be addressed is the impact of heat from the downward thrust of the F35 engines during landing. The Americans have the same issue with its Ford class carriers. The heat burns through decking. Unlike America, Britain presumably has no ideas about ruling the world – so why embark on this expensive exercise which seems to be a non-starter anyway.In military circles, huge aircraft carriers are regarded as floating targets given current missile and electronic warfare developments.