French offshore scouting and long-range strike doctrine

Was an 18,000-ton carrier too small for twin-engine aircraft, making additional French seaplane carriers the better choice?

Air-group size and mission determine the answer. French planners expected carriers to remain beyond hostile land-based aviation and use their aircraft for scouting and long-range strike, although the concept is not endorsed as workable in practice.

The closing engineering comment argues that 18,000 tons was too small for twin-engine aircraft and recommends more seaplane carriers. Airframe size only makes sense alongside the intended air-group size and missions. French planners treated carrier operations within reach of hostile land-based aviation as effectively suicidal. That assumption pushed the carrier farther offshore, where scouting and long-range strike defined its role. Its internal logic does not establish that it would work in practice; a better French carrier system remains the preferred outcome.