AFAIK the ramp precludes anything other than rotary wing AEW, or at least it precludes the E-2 in particular. That seems like a bigger deal than which models o

AFAIK the ramp precludes anything other than rotary wing AEW, or at least it precludes the E-2 in particular. That seems like a bigger deal than which models of jump jet can be used. An E-2 can be flown an hour or two longer but twice as high as a Merlin HM2. At 4.5 km up the horizon is 241 km away. At 10.6 km it's 367 km. Translated to area covered up to the horizon, that's 18,000 km^2 vs 42,000 km^2. So because it has a ramp, the HMS Queen Elizabeth has less than half the AEW coverage.