By the end of the Second World War, the battleship's procurement logic was still strongly tied to fighting other battleships, despite the many other jobs it performed. Shore bombardment, cruiser destruction, and destroyer sweeps did not persuade treasuries to fund a new battle line without an enemy equivalent. A carrier retained several independent missions: striking land and sea targets, defending the fleet from the air, and fighting opposing carriers when necessary. Those missions made a carrier easier to justify even when the expected enemy possessed no carrier of its own.
Chapter · 11:26-12:37
Carrier missions outlasted the battleship mission
A carrier could be justified for land attack and fleet air defence even without an opposing carrier, unlike a battleship built around capital-ship combat.