daft...
Why on earth would you want to tie yourself to the limitations of stovl aviation? Surely it makes far more sense to have the option of fielding a fixed-wing conventional air group - slap in a diagonal deck (British invention) with a catapult and, if you really want, put a ski jump on the bow (although another couple of cats would probably make more sense.) with the longer decks, short takeoff isn't so important, although the agility of such multi-mode aircraft is appealing - and vertical landing in some instances may be a useful mode.
From the propulsion point of view, the real benefit of going nuclear is range... iirc, the US carriers do carry fuel, but only so that they can refuel the battlegroup. nuclear powerplant is also pretty compact. The only benefit of gas turbines that i can see is in weight/modularity enabling distributed power generation - assuming a turbo-electric propulsion system - shaft connected power is inefficient and so last week.
Anyway, it's always worth having catapults to scare the american pilots with... ours were always shorter and harder... making taking off from British carriers all the more exciting for our visiting friends from accross the pond.
Can we get a frigate with a decent calibre gun if we're going shopping? there's probably something suitable in Naval Stores somewhere!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
