New British aircraft carrier sails for the first time

It actually did. The Italian two are 27kt and 10kt respectively, France's is 40kt and Spain's is 26kt. That adds up to 103kt, about 47kt shy of the sum of the QNLZ class' max displacement, or about 133% the displacement of a single QNLZ. The Italians are broaching (but not bridging) that gap with Trieste, at 33kt, but that will replace the Garibaldi so will only bring about a net increase of 23kt, up to 126kt - still 24kt short of the sum of the QNLZ class' max displacement.

By aircraft carried it's literally no contest whatsoever. Cavour: 16 harriers

Juan Carlos: 10 harriers

Garibaldi/ Trieste: 16 harriers / 16 F-35s respectively (we don't know how many F-35s Trieste will carry, but 16 is very generous).

Charles de Gaulle: 24 Rafale M + Hawkeye E-2C

In total, that's around 66 fighter aircraft and another 2 AWACS planes on top, which is shy of the 72 that the QNLZ class will carry between them at regular load, and a far cry from the 140 that they could carry at surge.

The fighters in consideration are also an important factor: the Rafale is the only fighter in this list with a longer range or larger payload than the F-35, and all the non F-35 planes are last gen, so unstealthed. The F-35's bring back capacity and range far exceed the Harrier's to the point of making comparison pointless.

Long story short, these are an asset unequaled in Europe both realistically and absolutely.

/r/europe Thread Parent Link - bbc.co.uk