Aircraft Carriers in Europe: From an Expensive Tradition to an Inexpensive Universality

... leaders, namely, in the number of units of this class, especially with regards to strike aircraft. However, this is more due to the natural course of events than to their active shipbuilding efforts. In view of the growing financial problems Italy and Spain are facing, it is premature to expect further growth or even an maintenance of the number of active units in the aircraft carrier fleets in the medium term. Third, there is an obvious shift in the actual needs of the fleet from aircraft carriers proper to relatively light multipurpose aircraft carrying vessels, often performing the functions of assault ships. Such vessels may carry strike aircraft (STOL aircraft), or carry no aircraft and become, in fact, helicopter carriers....