Lexington and Saratoga encouraged the US Navy to think of carriers as fast, wide-ranging offensive instruments. The American advantages were speed, space, and size: fast ships, a broad maneuver area, and large air groups. British doctrine instead expected defensive air operations by day and offensive strikes at night. The first counterraid planning began under Husband Kimmel almost immediately after Pearl Harbor. Chester Nimitz inherited those plans and turned them into a sequence of operations rather than a single retaliatory gesture.
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American carrier doctrine breaks toward aggressive raiding
American carriers used speed, operating space, and large air groups for offensive raids, while British doctrine paired daytime defense with night attacks.