What would a class of small Hermes carriers change?

What would be the impact of the Admiralty building ten sub-10,000-ton Hermes-style aircraft carriers between 1926 and 1930?

A workable Hermes redesign could provide more reconnaissance and trade-protection coverage, release fleet carriers for other duties, and encourage a separate treaty category for light carriers. Wider adoption could change carrier development and early-war operations, while leaving Japan at an industrial disadvantage if it fought both Britain and America.

A class of small Hermes derivatives could give cruiser squadrons their own aircraft for reconnaissance and trade protection. The scenario first requires a workable redesign: Hermes displaced about 11,000 tons standard, but her six 5.5-inch guns, ammunition, crews, supporting structure, armor, and early machinery offer opportunities to save weight. Later boilers, limited welding, and different protection arrangements could bring a successor close enough to the treaty threshold for contemporary naval constructors to declare it at 10,000 tons. Lexington and Saratoga provide precedents for creative displacement accounting. If Britain built the smaller ships, their station duties could release larger carriers for fleet operations and encourage other navies to adopt the type. British ownership would also change the 1930 London Treaty negotiations, potentially producing a separate light-carrier allowance. More decks could accelerate design experiments and alter early wartime deployments. These are conditional consequences of a redesigned Hermes class, and the scenario does not overturn the industrial imbalance if Japan still fights both the British Empire and the United States.