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There’s also a middle ground, with shorter deployments.


If you look at CdG, she rarely spends more than 90 days east of Suez. Add 30 days for work ups and transit and that keeps deployments under 4 months so the crew still has gas in the tank for a surge deployment if needed. That’s how she was able to deploy on short notice (<72hrs) for 4 months of combat operations in Libya right on the back of a 4 month deployment to the Indian Ocean… the total deployment length was still less than some of the crazy USN CVN extended deployments (which go on and on, sometimes for 8-9 months).


Ultimately with such a limited asset the goal is to maximize surge readiness. That way even with only 1 carrier you can get pretty good readiness outside of docking overhauls (typically ~20% of service life is spent in overhaul).


P.S. The deployment schedules of USS Midway (when she was based in Japan) or HMAS Melbourne were also fairly similar to CdG.


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