Britain and America designed carriers for different Pacific routes

British planners looked north through the South and East China Seas toward Japan. That route kept the fleet close to hostile or uncertain land bases, including a Philippines whose wartime control could not be assumed. The US Navy instead planned an advance across the open spaces of the central Pacific. Each service was therefore designing for a different operational route through the same ocean, making theater-specific carrier features a sign of coherent planning rather than simple superiority or inferiority.