The battleship remained strategic insurance as carrier aircraft developed. Aircraft and torpedoes might stop an enemy capital ship, but another battleship remained the most certain way to fight it when national survival was at stake. A hostile battle line could threaten ports, coastal infrastructure, and maritime trade, so preventing it from reaching those targets still mattered. Unbuilt Montana- and Lion-class designs show that navies were adapting armor against aerial and high-angle attack. Wartime carrier performance redirected construction priorities, but the cancellation of further battleships also limits certainty about when aircraft would have decisively overtaken a continuing line of battleship development.
Notable Point · 4:17-10:25
Why battleships remained strategic insurance
Battleships remained the dependable answer to enemy battleships and a direct threat to ports and trade even as carrier aircraft gained striking power.