The Colossus, Majestic, and Centaur families were planned to serve for roughly three years or until the war ended. Their purpose was to bridge the Royal Navy to Audacious, Malta, and later large fleet-carrier programmes. Cramped accommodation and wartime construction standards did not make them thoughtless designs, because their internal logic came from the same studies that produced Unicorn and the armored fleet carriers. Successive classes also incorporated operational lessons, helping explain why ships planned as temporary assets endured for decades.
Notable Point · 44:50-47:20
Three-year ships built on a strong design lineage
The light fleets were intended as short-lived bridges to Audacious, Malta, and later large carriers, yet Unicorn-derived arrangements made them more capable than disposable construction implied.