Carrier range broke battleship arithmetic

In a gun-fleet contest, numerical superiority tends to decide the outcome unless torpedoes or another weapon can reduce it. German hopes for a massed torpedo attack at Jutland illustrate the earlier method. Carrier aircraft changed the calculation by attacking beyond the enemy's ability to reply, potentially without revealing the carrier's position. British night-strike practice extended that advantage, and exercises in the major carrier navies showed that planners recognized it before the war.