Peacetime exercises produced a false picture of air attack priorities

In exercises, attacking aircrews gained prestige by reaching carriers, battleships, and cruisers, while destroyers and smaller ships were often ignored. The resulting dataset appeared extensive but embedded incentives that did not match wartime risk. Rear Admiral Reginald Henderson and others challenged the conclusion, and combat experience showed that the contextual interpretation had been wrong. American exercises produced a parallel distortion when the 8-inch batteries on Lexington and Saratoga repeatedly appeared useful and survived on the carriers despite their doubtful combat value. Both cases show how equipment and doctrine can persist when an exercise rewards behavior that war will not. The episode is a compact lesson in how realistic testing can still generate a false positive when participant incentives differ from war.