Leadership turnover reshapes naval aviation procurement

A ten-year delay changes the officers making procurement decisions as well as the number of hulls in service. Cunningham is expected to have completed his term and retired, while Henderson's death in 1939 leaves room for successors. Caspar John's experience ordering Fleet Air Arm aircraft in the United States is the reason for proposing him as a future Third Sea Lord. Historically, the naval purchasing party was already in America before the Air Ministry mission arrived and the efforts were combined. Without wartime competition for resources, that merger need not occur and the Navy could procure aircraft independently. The same freedom from wartime pressure would also affect American naval aviation.