Is there any news on the carrier that was mentioned last year? That sounded very much like payware DLC possibly supporting the F18 - given the way everything is seemingly heading in that direction I'd be very surprised to see ED putting additional effort into something that doesn't really need it only to release for free on the assumption that the F18 will actually come with a naval platform to launch/land on anyway.
There was only ever talk of doing a DLC higher poly model and including the ability to walk around the carrier. Never heard about "the carrier" being exclusively DLC.