Italy concentrated on the Mediterranean, while France's wider imperial commitments made naval parity with Italy strategically constraining and increased French dependence on Britain. For Italian advocates, a sea ringed by airfields made a costly organic carrier harder to defend against the politically powerful Regia Aeronautica. Intelligence maps suggested that much of the sea lay within land-air range, but range alone did not guarantee persistent reconnaissance or make remote bases easy to sustain. Gaps in surveillance and the difficulty of supporting outlying air stations left room for a movable seaplane base. The same geography weakened the political case for fleet carriers while strengthening the operational case for Europa and Miraglia.
Chapter · 19:26-24:28
Mediterranean geography weakened the carrier case
Dense land-based air coverage made an Italian carrier harder to justify politically, even though reconnaissance gaps still made a movable seaplane base attractive.