Radar and layered defense completed the design

Sources and historians weigh British influence on Midway differently. The class can be read as a fusion: the United States learned from British armoured carriers and wartime experience while continuing American prewar experiments that had not suited treaty-era priorities. The British decision to put aircraft in an armoured box reflected their importance and uncertainty about sustaining them under attack, rather than indifference to aviation. Radar helped Midway's balance work by allowing fighters and air defenses to engage attacks before they reached the ship. Armour did not need to make the carrier invulnerable if it could defeat the lighter attackers that escaped the outer defenses. Sensors, air defense, and armour worked together to support the central idea of survivability.