Larger carriers balance air groups, protection, and survivability

Removing treaty limits lets the Royal Navy enlarge an Implacable-derived carrier, increase hangar height, and add deck-edge lifts. Those changes could bring British operating and aircraft capacity close to Midway. The separate American prediction is a fleet of larger Midway-like ships in place of the historical Essex production surge, with armour becoming easier to accommodate. Under treaty limits, American Pacific fleet operations gave air-group size priority, while British routes through confined seas exposed carriers to land-based aircraft they could never outnumber. British protection sacrificed some initial capacity to keep a carrier useful on later days. The cumulative treaty ceiling also mattered: a satisfactory 27,000-ton compromise would allow only about five ships, too few for British requirements. More carriers and larger exercises would then develop aviation doctrine while navies continued buying battleships as immediate insurance.