Carrier aviation was another wartime transition

Both world wars began while major military technologies were moving from experiment toward practical operation. For the Second World War, the comparable naval change was from combat governed mainly by gun range toward aircraft carrying bombs over much greater distances. In this interpretation, bombs are shells delivered by another method and missiles are self-propelled shells, continuing the search for longer-ranged accurate fire. Carrier aviation became the premier capital-ship system only after investment made already-developed technologies operationally mature, much as oil required testing and infrastructure before it could support battleships.