Projecting the aircraft carrier of 1945 backward into the 1920s overstates what interwar naval aviation could do. Carriers were clearly developing, but their air groups and practical operating capability had not yet reached wartime maturity. A state could not base current defense on a system expected to dominate only in the future; it had to fund security across several time horizons. In this scenario, F3-derived capital ships and carrier development complement each other.
Notable Point · 46:09-47:54
Carrier aviation was emerging, but not yet mature
The counterfactual keeps battleships and carriers because 1920s air groups could not yet provide the mature combat power seen at the end of the Second World War.