Why powerful engines so rarely reached Fleet Air Arm aircraft

Why did Royal Navy interest in Sabre and Griffon engines produce so few Fleet Air Arm aircraft using them?

Because scarce high-power engines repeatedly went to urgent RAF requirements, forcing naval aviation to accept lower priority or buy American aircraft.

Engine supply was an institutional and logistical problem as much as an aircraft-design problem. Single-engine naval aircraft depended on obtaining more powerful engines, while bomber performance could also be increased by adding engines to a larger airframe. During the Battle of Britain and the wider air-defense crisis, the RAF had the stronger immediate claim, pushing the Fleet Air Arm toward American Wildcats, Hellcats, and Corsairs. Priority later shifted toward the British Pacific Fleet, which some RAF personnel misread as poor logistics rather than a deliberate change in recipient. Fulmar maintenance shortages in the Mediterranean show that engines, spares, and operational readiness belonged to the same allocation problem.