How Indomitable could sustain a combat air patrol

The proposed twenty Fulmars and nine Sea Hurricanes allow a patrol of four Fulmars and two Hurricanes to remain airborne. Four more Fulmars and four Hurricanes could wait on deck, with the other three Hurricanes below for maintenance. When the patrol engages, the deck-alert aircraft launch, another group moves up, and returning fighters cycle through rearming and servicing. Fulmars in the hangar provide successive replacements, with spare airframes allowing maintenance to continue. Radar direction would help these groups break up the Japanese bomber formations before they reached the ships. Some attackers could still get through, and a lucky torpedo hit remains possible, but a coordinated saturation attack becomes much less likely.