Carrier-onboard delivery extends the task group's reach

Carrier-onboard delivery, or COD, is a strategic mobility function rather than a minor transport detail. A wartime Swordfish carrying reconnaissance photographs and potatoes back from Malta illustrates how naval aircraft could combine information and supply work before COD became a formal specialty. Modern logistics aircraft move urgent parts and personnel across the last leg to a task group operating far from shore. They can also support search and rescue and recover trained aircrew whose loss would be costly in both human and operational terms. The farther a carrier operates from a land base, the more this aviation link contributes to its strategic reach.