Exercises understated destroyer air-attack risk

Did Royal Navy doctrine underestimate dive-bomber attacks on destroyers because the RAF said fast ships were too difficult to hit?

Limited experience mattered, but fleet exercises also produced a false signal because pilots concentrated on high-value capital ships instead of the destroyers they would attack in wartime.

The Royal Navy lacked enough experience with modern dive bombing before the Skua and its sight entered development. Vickers produced a capable sight despite the apparent absence of Air Ministry funding, suggesting quiet naval support without proving it. The deeper doctrinal problem came from exercises, where aircraft earned the most value by attacking carriers and capital ships. Wartime attackers could claim success by damaging any available vessel, so destroyers faced a danger that peacetime target priorities had concealed.