Diverging paths in carrier aviation

The United States was developing dive-bombing methods while multiple navies had accumulated more than a decade of torpedo-aircraft experience. Britain issued the 1930 requirement that produced the Fairey Swordfish. Japan was developing the Mitsubishi B2M1 from Blackburn design work, a direct link between British and Japanese naval aviation. These aircraft belonged to competing experiments in strike doctrine and carrier operation rather than one settled model. The variety helps explain why navies wanted freedom to keep developing carriers instead of accepting a new treaty definition of their capabilities.