The unbuilt armored-flight-deck Essex

The Essex class retained a cruiser-grade armoured belt and lower armoured deck, consuming much of its protection weight. An armoured flight-deck variant could not retain that scheme and add another heavy deck within the available weight and stability margins. Thinning the side and lower-deck armour to blast and splinter protection is proposed as a way to free enough weight for a three-inch armoured flight deck. The expected benefit includes limiting bomb and kamikaze damage such as that suffered by Franklin and Bunker Hill, while keeping more carriers at sea to provide air cover. This counterfactual includes an estimate of more than 10,000 lives saved directly or through continued fleet air cover. The proposed redistribution would also retain the air group.