Counterfactuals test when paper carriers could matter

The closing exercise assumes that a paper carrier reaches service and asks which later decisions or operations would change. Completed modified Taihos with trained air groups are judged too late to alter Japan's defeat, although fighter-heavy groups introduce the possibility of a stronger protective screen for Yamato's final sortie. The British 1931 alternatives raise a design choice: a full-length flight deck receives preference, while the larger lifts remain a point of interest. PA6 is the French proposal singled out for imagining the consequences of an earlier carrier in service. American sub-10,000-ton carriers introduce a diplomatic counterfactual: ships entering service before the London Naval Treaty could give the United States a reason to resist closing that loophole. These are possible consequences to examine, not outcomes established by the unbuilt designs.