The 65,000-Ton HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales Are the Largest Aircraft Carriers the Royal Navy Ever Built. Neither Has a Catapult, Which Limits Both Ships to 1 Aircraft: The F-35B

HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s two largest-ever aircraft carriers, each displace about 65,000 tons, but they have no catapult and no arresting wire system. Instead, both ships are designed around the STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) F-35B, meaning the Royal Navy’s fixed-wing carrier air capability for the next four decades will be tied to that aircraft. The article contrasts this with U.S. carriers, which use CATOBAR systems to launch a range of aircraft, and with the French Charles de Gaulle. By avoiding CATOBAR infrastructure, the UK traded flexibility for a carrier fleet aligned to STOVL operations, using a ski-jump ramp for launch and vertical recovery for the F-35B.