Could radar-equipped Swordfish have cleared the picket line?

Could ASV-equipped Swordfish have scouted ahead and removed the Japanese picket boats?

Technically perhaps, but the forced long-range launch itself magnified the strategic fear created by the raid.

British Swordfish equipped with air-to-surface-vessel radar might have searched ahead of the task force at night. Japanese forces probably could not yet detect and exploit the radar emissions, so the scouts could conceivably find and attack picket boats before they reported the carriers. A closer launch would improve the B-25 crews' chances of reaching China and preserving their aircraft. The counterfactual nevertheless carries a strategic tradeoff. Public knowledge that the bombers launched from much farther away forced Japan to contemplate a search and defense radius approaching a thousand miles, magnifying the raid's psychological reach.