Approved in July 1921, the Naval Appropriation Act for 1922 helped turn naval aviation from experimentation into a durable institution. It anticipated elements of the coming Washington treaty settlement before the treaty itself existed. The last ships of the wartime destroyer surge had only just commissioned, so their inventory count still made further construction seem unnecessary. A recurring order for a few destroyer leaders could have kept design offices, machinery suppliers, and shipyard production lines active. Those ships would also have provided proven designs when rapid expansion became necessary. Congress instead concentrated on the large fleet already being assembled and declined the destroyer continuity programme the Navy sought.
Chapter · 35:56-39:40
The 1922 appropriation built naval aviation while destroyer work stopped
The Naval Appropriation Act for 1922 helped institutionalize US naval aviation, but it did not fund the small destroyer-leader batches that could have preserved design and production continuity.