Carrier shortages and the Singapore advance force

From about 1924, Far East war plans included carriers and battlecruisers in the first force sent to defend Singapore. That fast group was intended to secure the position while the main battle fleet followed. Carrier shortages later forced competing choices among the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and Far East, including the dispatch of capital ships without the carrier element their doctrine expected. In the interwar construction counterfactual, a standing escort reserve would have avoided interruptions to larger warship programs. Continuous production of turbine-powered sloops would also have sustained machinery production and made a later increase in destroyer construction easier.