Carriers moved air power without moving an air base

The Abyssinian Crisis placed British carriers under conditions close enough to combat to expose meaningful aircraft attrition and maintenance demand. Those losses strengthened the case for Unicorn and for additional carrier capacity able to bring support with the aircraft. Land-based bombers could possess impressive range, but their practical mobility ended where prepared airfields, fuel, maintenance, and stores ended. The effort required to operate Vulcans through Ascension during the Falklands War and to build B-29 bases in the Second World War illustrates the difference. A carrier therefore offered mobile aviation infrastructure, not merely a way to transport aircraft.