Carrier air defense evolves from climb rate to fighter direction

Early carriers could wait to launch fighters because slow attackers gave aircraft such as the Fairey Flycatcher time to climb and intercept, but that window disappeared as bombers accelerated. The answer became keeping fighters airborne and directing them with radar and fighter-control teams. In the wartime pairing of USS Saratoga and HMS Victorious, operating in American service as USS Robin, Saratoga concentrated strike aircraft while Victorious coordinated the combined fighter force. Postwar air defense increasingly became a sensor-and-missile contest, with the F-14 Tomcat and Phoenix missile representing the shift from close dogfighting toward long-range detection and first-shot advantage.