Many of these carriers were new in practical terms because completion had been delayed while the hulls were kept in condition for future use. The Colossus design displaced about 13,200 tons standard and 18,000 tons at full load, yet could operate roughly forty aircraft. That made the class a capable light fleet carrier rather than merely an improvised escort carrier, even though it grew from an emergency wartime design influenced by HMS Unicorn. Finishing ships only when needed spread postwar costs while preserving usable capital assets. Their export and transfer history also shows how British construction seeded Australian, Canadian, and Indian carrier aviation.
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Light Fleet carriers remained valuable postwar assets
The Colossus and Majestic classes were wartime emergency designs, but their unfinished or recently completed hulls gave several navies usable carrier capability after 1945.