Fragmented fleets and the need for protected bastions

Russia's fleets could not easily reinforce one another, turning geography into a force-structure problem rather than a map detail. In the Russo-Japanese War, impressive totals on paper concealed the disadvantage of scattered forces facing a concentrated opponent. The arrival of ballistic-missile submarines raised the stakes because the Barents and Sea of Okhotsk had to become protected areas where survivable nuclear forces could operate. Those submarines were treated as the reserve that could still compel an end to a nuclear war after other forces had struck. Protecting them helped make carrier aviation useful even to a navy long sceptical of carriers.