The 1955 carrier force confronts jets and missiles

By 1955 the Royal Navy was replacing piston aircraft with jets while relying heavily on light-fleet and other wartime carrier designs. Larger aircraft consumed deck and hangar space, so each succeeding air group risked becoming smaller even as Soviet aircraft and submarines increased the demand for reach. Missiles offered one way to add defensive depth when a carrier could no longer embark every desired fighter and support aircraft. The Centaur and Audacious classes provided useful hulls, while Albion and Bulwark would later shift toward amphibious roles. In this interpretation, Malta's cancellation turned aircraft growth from an ordinary modernization problem into a persistent limit on fleet structure.