Soviet submarine development increased the demand for long-range anti-submarine search at the same time that fleet air defence was becoming a networked problem. Carrier aircraft could extend detection beyond a ship's own sensors and pass that information into command-and-control arrangements for the whole force. The Fairey Gannet and proposed radar variants illustrate the attempt to combine warning, surveillance, and specialized aircrew on limited carrier decks. Sea Dart supplied another layer by allowing escorts and carriers to engage aircraft after the warning system had found and tracked them. Airborne early warning mattered because it organized the other defensive layers instead of operating as an isolated aircraft mission.
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Airborne early warning becomes the center of layered fleet defence
The early 1960s bring Soviet submarine pressure and a growing requirement to integrate airborne warning, command and control, and missile defence.