[2ndDivisionVet]

Why didn’t we just sell or give them the USS Enterprise and another fleet carrier?

[Rockingham]

We use our carriers to the end of their effective service lives and then replace them with new ones. In their final years, old carriers tend to have a lot of maintenance, reliability, and crew comfort issues; and even at their best, they are reliant on thirty year old technologies.

The Brits buying and refitting an old US carrier would be like shopping for a new car by going to a salvage yard and rebuilding an old junker. Instead of buying an old, broken down maintenance headache, the Brits want to buy new, and with capabilities designed for their current needs, based on modern technology, and to keep their shipyards in the business of building warships.