Our aircraft carriers and the planes that could have flown from them - which we could have deployed in the current Libyan situation - had to be scrapped in order to afford a replacement for our nuclear non-independent, non-deterrent system (i.e. the new Trident) that is not wanted by military chiefs of staffs and the only function of which is to massage the egos of politicians who want to strut the international arena parading as representatives of a "nuclear power".