A carrier was never an isolated procurement. Royal Navy practice, codified in the operating drill associated with Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers Reginald Henderson, paired each carrier with a cruiser and several destroyers, preferably inside a still larger battle force. A French carrier program would therefore have competed for escorts and operating resources as well as hull tonnage and aircraft. The warning that later officers sometimes ignored the established drill also connects escort doctrine with carrier losses rather than treating the screen as a paper allocation. For a smaller navy, avoiding the carrier appeared to avoid the entire protective package, making reliance on allied carriers attractive even when it left France with an incomplete fast fleet.
Notable Point · 2:16:13-2:18:11
A carrier also demanded cruisers and destroyers
For a smaller navy, avoiding carriers also avoided the cruiser and destroyer commitment needed to protect them.