Aircraft operation determines the carrier's purpose and much of its size, whether those aircraft are crewed or uncrewed. An eighteen-aircraft strike commits a large share of a thirty-aircraft air group, while a sixty-aircraft group has substantially more aircraft left available. A larger group also retains a larger usable force when some aircraft are unavailable. Hull dimensions follow the size of the aircraft and the number that must fit across each row and along the deck. The example of five aircraft per row and eighteen rows makes that relationship between aircraft capacity and ship dimensions explicit.
Notable Point · 8:00-10:13
Air-group size determines how much of the carrier's force a strike consumes
An eighteen-aircraft strike places much greater pressure on a thirty-aircraft carrier than on one carrying sixty, while aircraft dimensions and deck arrangements determine hull size.