Exercise incentives encouraged aircraft to attack carriers and battleships because simulated losses carried no mortal risk and high-value targets brought prestige. In war, exposed screening destroyers became much more attractive. Repeated exercises gave planners confidence in the same assumption, delaying serious attention to destroyer high-angle armament until Henderson and others challenged it. Repetition strengthened the group consensus without correcting the difference between simulated attacks and wartime risk.
Notable Point · 41:41-48:20
How peacetime exercises distorted destroyer air defense
Peacetime pilots favored prestigious capital-ship targets, creating false evidence that destroyers would rarely face air attack.