The QE Class? The contemporary ones or the new ones? ;)

Herald

When you don't know something, why not imagine that you might have something to learn, instead of assuming that anything you don't know is therefore and necessarily of no importance?  If you "can't see" then why don't you LOOK? 

I blanch at Herald's vituperativeness sometimes but frankly you merit it.  Where to start with you?  It seems you don't really know anything, and as for teaching you - Herald has more patience than I.  IMHO, when you try to wash an ass' head, you waste both your time and soap.

What is going to be the rest of the fleet around the carrier?

Some redundancy may not be needed if there's adequate protection from other ships in the carrier force.

Given the current state of the RNs escort fleet, the maximum amount of survivability and redundancy would seem sensible.

In 1998 the RN had 35 escorts (destroyers and frigates) and the long range plan was for 32.  Today there are 24 and by 2018 there will be 19 (6 Type 45's and 13 Type 23's).  The RN used to operate it's surface ships all over the world doing various tasks and now all they can do is barely escort carrier and amphib groups.  A proud and historically marvelous service is but a shadow of it's former self.   Piracy is on the rise in many parts of the world and the RN has no ships to send to protect British merchants.  It's rather sad.

The carriers may be built.  As of today the earliest they might get an AEW replacement for the 26 year old Sea Kings is 2022 and when enough F-35's are available to make a dent in the empty space of that flight deck is anyone's guess.   Throw in the lack of escorts to protect against sub surface and aerial threats and one has to ask what the UK is thinking?

For all the talk here of the Falklands they were a near run thing- according to the naval commander Adm Sandy Woodward in his book.   A bit better leadership, kit, or luck would have seen the RN defeated.  According to Woodward if they had lost either carrier it was all over.  The RN lost a lot of escorts.  The operation could not be repeated today due to lack of ships and even worse lack of aircraft as there are no more Sea Harriers.   I'm an American and it makes me ill.  I mourn the loss of a once proud service.  It seems that Labor finally killed the RN.

I guess for the sub protection you might be able to use the Astute subs that are planned. Disadvantage is that this ties the subs to the carrier fleet.

You can assign an SSN to a surface task force.  One might assume it operates far in front helping to clear the way.  You don't assign it to do asw anywhere near the task force for obvious reasons- any method that allows you to do so is still problematic.  If you are operating in a specific location (carrier ops, amphib landing, merchant escort, mine warfare, etc.) then an SSN can be used in the far outer zone along a given axis but it's no panacea and it only can cover so much area.

This leaves aside the fact that an SSN is an offensive system that would often be misused directly supporting a task force.  It further leaves aside that the RN is going down to 8 SSN's and no SS's and that only 4 Astute have been ordered and there are already rumors the RN might have get by with only 7 SSN's.  I believe only 4 have been ordered and only 1 has been launched.

Frankly a surface escort is cheaper and can do a lot more to support a task force beyond asw, such as anti aircraft, radar picket, and various electronic support functions.  When needed it can operate as a decoy.  Most importantly when doing asw it can rely on it's helo's to engage at a distance while an SSN in many cases will be at risk to the sub it's seeking to prevent closing on the task force.  Consider that it in many restricted bodies of water, such as the Persian Gulf, that the conventional sub has many advantages over the SSN and thus you might not wish to even operate there.

In any case the RN doesn't have enough surface escorts nor subs.  It has far fewer platforms than it needs to support it's assigned missions.  The result is that the RN can not do many basic things a few years ago it took for granted.  Consider the recent Rand report on piracy which I believe shows piracy up from 2000 to 2006 by 68% to 2,450 or so attempts and acts.