The Fairey IIID forms the core and majority of Hermes's air group, making reconnaissance the ship's central aviation task. It belongs to the long-lived Fairey III family, which first flew in 1917 and served across British and Commonwealth aviation. Its production run of 964 aircraft far exceeds the totals for the Douglas DT, Vought VE-7, Mitsubishi 1MF, and Mitsubishi B1M. Those numbers show how widely the Fairey design could be used and sustained over successive versions. On Hermes, that endurance supports the work of finding a threat, tracking it, and guiding the wider fleet's response.
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The Fairey IIID makes Hermes an information carrier
The prolific Fairey IIID gives Hermes a durable reconnaissance core built to find, track, and report threats across distant stations.