Why RAF organization complicated maritime coordination

The recognition failure belonged to a wider RAF expansion from a service focused on strategic bombing into one that also needed fighters and maritime patrol forces. Aircraft growth demanded spare parts, fuel, bases, and support infrastructure as well as new airframes. Trenchard's layered command structure reflected both First World War practice and a political effort to protect the RAF's independence. That organization created many opportunities for delay when information had to pass from the Admiralty through the Air Ministry and Coastal Command to operational squadrons. The supposed surplus of aircraft engines reveals the wider planning problem: capacity needed for replacement parts and field support could be mistaken for unused capacity available to build an enlarged bomber force.