Early US carrier practice favoured rapid, massed launches, while British planning anticipated attacks by land-based aircraft in the Mediterranean and South China Sea. That threat encouraged a constant combat air patrol. Maintaining the patrol absorbs deck and aircraft capacity that cannot simultaneously support a large strike. Both navies could perform either task, but their expected theatres and priorities changed the balance between them.
Chapter · 47:21-48:27
Alpha strikes versus continuous carrier operations
Carrier doctrine is compared through the tension between massed American strikes and the Royal Navy's need to sustain combat air patrols.