Q&A · 1:58:42-1:59:18

How older carrier hulls crowded out Malta funding

A funding question asks whether the large inventory of apparently usable wartime carriers weakened the case for new Malta-class ships.

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Question

Did the large number of older carriers in service make it harder to fund new Malta-class ships?

Short answer

Yes; the fleet looked sufficient on paper, but modernizing wartime carriers such as Victorious proved extensive and expensive.

Notes

The existing fleet made Malta harder to justify, even though jet operations soon exposed the limits of many wartime hulls. Victorious required an extensive rebuild, showing that apparent abundance did not equal a modern carrier force at low cost.