A longer construction programme changes the balance between a carefully developed carrier and a design intended for rapid production. The counterfactual uses a 27,000-ton Yorktown design that avoids the reductions imposed by the historical tonnage allowance. Ordering two or three such ships each year from 1933 could put roughly twenty in service by 1942. That estimate would leave Japan facing a carrier force it could not match numerically and reduce the need for the later Essex programme. Essex is interpreted as the adaptation needed to build carriers in much larger numbers, with a different production requirement from the earlier design.
Notable Point · 3:22:25-3:24:54
Earlier carrier orders change the need for the Essex class
Regular orders for full-size Yorktown-derived carriers from 1933 could leave the United States with a much larger prewar carrier fleet.