An aircraft carrier's air wing and command facilities are distinct from the hull that supports them. The carrier is not meant to substitute for an up-threat air-defence destroyer, even though HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn provide unusual historical caveats to the general rule. Loading a carrier with destroyer-grade air defence can also encourage politicians to treat separate escorts as redundant. The force may then receive fewer escorts and a carrier burdened with a job that should have been distributed across the group. The example shows why an admiral must optimize the formation as a system rather than demand that its most prominent ship perform every role.
Notable Point · 58:18-1:00:34
A carrier is a support node, not a substitute for its escorts
The carrier example shows why fleet design assigns different jobs to capital ships and escorts, and how making a carrier look self-sufficient can invite damaging escort cuts.