Forrestal's flexible air wing and the alternative of USS United States

Midway is associated with an armored strike-carrier concept and British lessons from the early Mediterranean war. Forrestal is judged to reflect American experience of operating carriers across oceans more fully. Its larger hull emphasizes the number and types of aircraft in the air wing while retaining its own protection arrangements. The canceled USS United States represents a competing route centered on a strike role that ballistic missiles could perform. Although the handling of the cancellation is criticized, its result is welcomed because that route is expected to produce a less efficient mixed carrier force. The preference is for the more adaptable fleet that developed toward the later supercarrier.