Global air threats shape armored carrier requirements

The prominence of a surviving Mediterranean air-threat study can encourage an overly narrow explanation of armored carrier design. The Admiralty also sought assessments elsewhere, producing its own Far Eastern work when the Air Ministry lacked the necessary information. Northern European studies likewise considered airfield locations and aircraft range. In the Far East, damage serious enough to require a return to Britain could remove a carrier from operations for a prolonged period, making protection and forward repair valuable. Mediterranean planners expected large land-based strikes whose airfields could coordinate by telephone without the signals required between carriers. Ark Royal and the armored Illustrious design addressed these different operational pressures with different balances of protection and air-group capacity.