British bases, fleet oilers, and carrier endurance

Implacable's endurance belonged to a worldwide British logistics system. Slower oilers and convoys moved fuel between base depots, while fast fleet oilers shuttled from forward bases to the fleet. A projected Far Eastern advance would secure Singapore, then relieve or recapture Hong Kong before moving toward positions from which to blockade Japan. Possible operations around Taiwan and a forward fueling station on the Korean peninsula formed part of this scenario. Such port-hopping depended on securing and supplying successive bases. Britain's existing global fuel infrastructure let designers devote carrier displacement to protection and aviation instead of matching the fuel capacity required for an American advance across the Pacific.