A purpose-built carrier race without treaty conversions

The Royal Navy might move from Hermes and its conversions toward larger carriers with stronger decks, armor, bigger lifts, and larger air groups, improving designs through repeated construction. The United States would have a harder political case without foreign carrier programs to point to, but naval aviators and Pacific war games still provide evidence for a large carrier. Once either navy builds a battlecruiser-sized carrier, the other has an incentive to answer it. The competition therefore shifts carrier development from treaty opportunism toward a continuing contest over survivability, air-group size, speed, and range.