Q&A · 2:13:08-2:15:06

How carriers and battleships evolve without treaty limits

Successful carriers remove the political case for limiting them and push surface fleets toward higher speed and new carrier-battleship combinations.

Question

Would purpose-built Courageous-class carriers survive the Washington treaty era?

Short answer

They would likely survive because the alternate timeline produces no Washington treaty, while their success drives continuing experiments with carriers and faster battleships.

Notes

Aircraft have proved devastating against ships in harbor but not yet against maneuvering battle lines at sea. Navies therefore retain battleships while trying to make them faster and improve carrier strike against moving targets. The American standard-type battle line would look especially slow in this environment.