An armoured Ark Royal and its ninety-aircraft group

The likely British ship would be an armoured Ark Royal, or an Implacable-like development built without the historical pause and displacement compromises. Ark Royal already provided the strike-carrier and flag-staff facilities from which the design could grow. Contemporary British doctrine could produce an air group of about thirty-six fighters and between thirty-six and fifty-four torpedo bombers. At the upper end, the ship would carry roughly ninety aircraft even without a separate dive-bomber component. The estimate gives the counterfactual a concrete force package and shows how treaty freedom could affect aircraft procurement, not merely hull dimensions.