Italian planners could reasonably see little need for a carrier within the Mediterranean's network of land bases. Before radar could provide reliable warning, however, a force near hostile coasts could not count on land-based fighters always being in the right place. Period aircraft could not be maintained, rearmed, or operationally refuelled in mid-air, so a moving task group needed an aviation base that could accompany it. A carrier supplied combat air patrol and search support while giving aircraft somewhere to refuel and rearm. The late Aquila conversion chiefly answered this air-defence problem in non-permissive waters, with strike capability useful but secondary to protecting the fleet.
Chapter · 41:37-45:45
Italy's belated case for organic air cover
Even in the Mediterranean, a moving task force needed its own fighters, search aircraft, and a deck from which aircraft could be sustained.