American treaty cruisers initially made sense as fast reconnaissance ships within organized scouting forces. Aircraft then became the leading scouting asset, weakening the case for hulls optimized mainly for speed and information gathering. The US Navy shifted cruiser emphasis toward presence and fighting, but those ships were less comfortable in forward solo reconnaissance. A new scouting platform could therefore undermine the rationale for a specialized cruiser without making the hull obsolete.
Notable Point · 5:22-6:10
Aircraft changed the value of high-speed scouting cruisers
Once aircraft took the lead in reconnaissance, cruisers optimized around scouting lost their principal advantage and shifted toward presence and combat.