Fighter cover before the modern combat air patrol

Was the Royal Navy's standing fighter cover already a combat air patrol?

It anticipated CAP, but without radar direction it was a more local orbit whose effectiveness depended on endurance above the carrier.

The full modern CAP label would overstate the earliest system. Fighters often orbited close to the carrier rather than operating as a radar-directed screen well ahead of the fleet. That made hours aloft more important than a simple range figure. Specifications such as the Skua's therefore emphasized endurance because the aircraft had to maintain continuous local protection.