Back to the Future, Her Majesty's Edition
"old PoW was sent by British admirals into an area of the South China Sea without adequate air cover"
Today, there aren't nearly enough operational surface and attack submarine combatants in the RN to provide PoW and Queen Lizzy a suitable escort group against an opponent with a capable navy, plus keep control of the commercial sea lanes that Britain is just as reliant on today as it was vs. Napoleon or der Fuhrer, protect Britain's ballistic missile subs and any potential British amphibious or troop convoys that are needed for operations. Never mind trying to also send a couple British attack subs to play hell with enemy commerce or naval operations.
Basically, the RN can provide 2 or 3 surface escorts and an attack sub for the one carrier that will probably be operational at a given time. That's fine if you want your air wing to bomb terrorists and insurgents in some impoverished nation, but I wouldn't even suggest sending that force into the Persian Gulf if Iran starts grabbing large numbers of British-flagged merchant ships.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
