Graf Zeppelin's threat value exceeds its combat value

The carrier need not generate excellent strikes to influence British planning; completion and uncertain capabilities would make it a fleet-in-being asset. The later British effort devoted to bombing the incomplete Italian carrier Aquila shows how seriously such a threat could be treated. In early 1941, however, Britain's heavy-bomber capacity is more limited, making suppression of Graf Zeppelin a costly precaution. Naval construction should also be insulated as far as possible from Hermann Göring and the Four Year Plan so submarine and carrier priorities are not distorted by production politics.