Why airship reach depended on shore infrastructure

Long range did not remove an airship's dependence on prepared bases with suitable mooring and maintenance equipment. Spending less on the support network reduced the number of places from which it could operate safely. Aircraft carriers offered a different solution by carrying their support infrastructure inside a mobile, protected task group. On the West Coast Akron found an opposing force within twenty-two hours and avoided interception, but she soon had to return east for maintenance unavailable locally. One estimate for sustained two-ocean service envisages several coastal bases with three or four airships each, plus inland centres for crew training and major refits. That scheme would require roughly thirty airships, allowing operations to continue despite storm losses and other non-combat attrition. Realistic exercises still exposed equipment to danger even when commanders tried to reduce the risk. Funding for only two operating hulls left a wide gap between an experimental capability and the force needed for routine service.