Big Blue Blanket and carrier damage resilience

Images from Okinawa show the level of damage that the lightly fueled Randolph strike failed to produce. The Big Blue Blanket was an air-defence doctrine intended to give carrier task groups relative, though incomplete, safety. Bunker Hill suffered devastating damage from multiple kamikaze hits involving far more fuel. Essex-class construction is then compared with the greater structural resilience expected from a Midway-class or British armoured-hangar carrier. No carrier was invulnerable. Air defence, payload, number of hits, and protection determined whether an attack caused a lasting operational loss.