Mr T
Senior Member
The British prefer “Light”carriers more intended to escort but capable of Amphibious air assault. As such they moved away from cats in favor of aircraft that could SVTOL. They wanted a platform for defense of their operations, base for air assault and ASW.
I'm not sure that's actually the case, but happy to be corrected. I was under the impression that it was necessary because the UK government wouldn't pay for large carriers so the Navy had to make smaller "through-deck cruisers" that they wouldn't be able to configure for CATOBAR (either because that would give the game away or because there wasn't the money for it).
As for the QE-class, catapults were looked at but the electromagnetic solution was considered to be too expensive/risky and steam-powered catapults weren't possible.
That said I suppose you're right that for now the MSDF might not need a ski jump as they won't be intending to flying into enemy airspace.