Editing CVA-01 (section)

=== Details ===
[[File:CVA-01 Other Side.jpg|thumb|left|Official Artist's impression of the proposed aircraft carrier.]]

The "sketch" approved by the Admiralty in July 1963 was for an {{convert|890|ft|abbr=on}}, at the waterline, vessel. Three shafts powered by a new steam plant design{{efn|1000 psi at 1000 degrees F}} would give 27-28 knots and one shaft could be shut down at a time for maintenance. The electrical distribution system, using step-down transformers from 3.3kV, was also new to the Royal Navy. 

The CVA-01 would have displaced no more than 54,500 tons, with a flight deck length (including the bridle arrester boom) of {{convert|963|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}} and {{convert|189|ft|abbr=on}} wide.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|Moore|2003|p=}}</ref> Overall width was {{convert|231|ft|4|in|abbr=on}}. The size of the flight deck, combined with [[steam catapult]]s and arrester gear would have enabled the carriers to operate the latest jets. The two {{convert|250|ft|abbr=on}} long catapults, which could operate aircraft of maximum weight of {{convert|70,000|lb|t|abbr=on}} were set at 4 degrees apart. There were four take-off positions to operate V/STOL aircraft.

Initially, no armour was planned but was added to the magazines, ship sides, and hangar bringing displacement up to 54,500 tons.

[[File:IWP65.jpg|thumb|Second page of the now-declassified RAF document "The Validity of a Royal Navy Plan to use Carrier-borne Strike Aircraft to Neutralise Indonesian Air Strike Forces"]]

The sketch included 30 Buccaneer strike and Sea Vixen fighter aircraft. The variable geometry aircraft under design to [[Operational Requirement]] OR.346 was expected to be carried out later.

In an Intervention Study (IWP/65) against Indonesia made in 1965, the Royal Navy assumed two carriers, CVA-01 and [[HMS Hermes (R12)]] operating 400 nautical miles off the southern coast of Java, would have 31 Buccaneers (24 for CVA-01 and 7 for Hermes) and 24 Phantoms (12 for CVA-01 and 12 for Hermes) to take on the Indonesian air force of the mid-1970s equipped with 20 [[Tu-16 Badger]] bombers and 20 [[Yak-28 Brewer]] bombers, deployed at six airfields.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Validity of a Royal Navy Plan to use Carrier-borne Strike Aircraft to Neutralise Indonesian Air Strike Forces |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2169370 |website=National Archives |publisher=National Archives |access-date=23 August 2024}}</ref>

The aircraft complement in the design approved on 27 January 1966 was a mix of 36 [[McDonnell Douglas Phantom in UK service|British specification McDonnell Douglas Phantom II]] fleet defence fighters (with secondary strike role) and [[Blackburn Buccaneer]] low-level [[strike aircraft]], four early-warning aircraft, five anti-submarine helicopters, and two search-and-rescue helicopters.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Faddy |first1=David |last2= |first2= |date=30 September 2009 |title=The Cancellation of CVA‐01 and the Initiation of the Future Carrier (CVF) |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/14702430802666728 |journal=Defence Studies |volume=9 |issue=3 |publisher= |pages=329-353 |doi=10.1080/14702430802666728 |access-date=23 February 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Defences included an [[Ikara (missile)|Ikara anti-submarine system]] and a [[Sea Dart|Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile]] (then under development) on the quarterdeck. The Ikara was deleted from the design in February 1965.

The large 'Broomstick' radar dome above the central island on the carrier was planned to be a [[Type 988&nbsp;Radar|Type 988]] Anglo-Dutch 3D radar, which would subsequently be fitted on the [[Royal Netherlands Navy]] {{sclass|Tromp|frigate|1}}s, although this would not have been fitted to the final carrier as Britain pulled out of the project.