The CVA airgroups by the mid-late 80s would be substantially upgraded spey Phantoms and Buccaneers, E2 Hawkeyes and Sea King HAS 5.
By mid to late 80s I figure if Britain is willing to pay for the CVAs, they'd probably want the fatboy Buccaneers gone, too. I figure by the late 80s about 2/3 of the fighters are F-4 Phantoms with seriously worked over Spey engines, and the other F-14 Tomcats used for fleet air defense.
AHP, I stated in the first post that a proposed clash would be in the late 80s, with early arriving Yak 41M from a Kiev and Mig 29K and/or Su27K from the Kuznetsov which would be built instead of the Gorshkov. I stated this because I understand that in earlier years the Soviet planes just weren't up to scratch no matter how good/bad their aircrews were. But by the late 80s the Soviets had been operating carrier wings for 10-12 years and helicopter sqns for 20 years and could hardly be called beginners. In addition the bar for Soviet carriers isn't as high as the RN and USN, that's why I used the examples I did. Because of the powerful missile fits in their ships the Soviets don't have to learn how to conduct sophisticated alpha strikes, which does take time and experience.
A Yak-41M or MiG-29 would be a tought fight for a built Phantom, but would be a much more even fight against a F-14 Tomcat. Hence, I figure if the RN is playing in the big leagues, they'll want the best, and the Americans owuld be almost certainly happy to help.
And the Soviets, as a bunch of people mentioned, did have a lot of focus on anti-ship missiles, and a Shipwreck will do serious damage to a CVA-01, and completely destroy anything smaller than a cruiser. The RN would probably want to get good air defense for that carrier.
So the issues as I see them are; Can the Soviet airwings/SAMs defend against an CVA alpha strike, or would such a strike cripple the Soviets? Can the Soviet muscle their way into missile range, and can the CVA group defend against a massed AShM strike?
1 - A CVA Alpha Strike would hurt like hell, but how much damage it does depends on what the Soviets have for air defenses and how many planes are flying BARCAP when they strike. If there is a bunch of MiG-29s or Yak-41Ms and a Kirov is watching over the carrier, maybe half the planes will come home, and they'll likely take a few ships but not shut the CBG down. Cripple the fleet, probably not. Damage it, yes.
2 - What happens if the Soviets strike hard at the RN fleet depends on what defenses, as well, and what they hit with. If they send a stack of Shipwrecks right with the fighters, The RN fleet better hope they get lucky and the Sea Darts take out the Shipwrecks. If even one gets the carrier, that is out of commission. If they do one or the other, the problem can be handled. The E-2 Hawkeye's radar coverage is good enough that the fighters probably could take a few of the Shipwrecks themselves with Sidewinders. The Sea Dart would be well advised to be complemented by a gun CIWS, perhaps the Phalanx or later on a Goalkeeper.