Air Ministry politics leave Britain short of dive bombers

The Fleet Air Arm's weakness is presented as an internal Air Ministry allocation problem rather than a simple case of RAF hostility to the Navy. Placing all aviation under the Royal Air Force initially worked because the new service concentrated on securing its institutional survival against external rivals. In the early 1930s, however, belief in the bomber's decisive power increasingly shaped internal funding and doctrine. Fleet aviation, Coastal Command, Fighter Command, and army cooperation all lost influence as the bomber faction grew stronger. Britain consequently entered the war without a modern land-based dive bomber and had to draw old Hawker Hart light bombers back into that role. The Navy obtained the Blackburn Skua only by labeling it a fighter and accepting the related Blackburn Roc turret-fighter variant, an example of requirements being distorted to pass through institutional politics.