Operational experience can be the last stage of acquiring a carrier or the starting point for its replacement. Governments find it easier to approve an improved version of a demonstrated capability than a radical departure. HMS Warrior and HMS Dreadnought assembled technologies and practices already tested elsewhere, including machinery, guns, and design ideas drawn from other warships. Competition with foreign building programmes also helped justify the next step to the Treasury. Carrier design therefore begins by asking what a navy already knows how to operate and which lessons it wants the next ship to preserve.
Chapter · 0:01-4:48
Why carrier design begins with experience
Carrier programs usually advance through conservative steps because proven operations are easier to fund and turn into the next generation of ships.