Reconnaissance without surrendering naval control

Land-based aircraft offered speed and bomb load, but reconnaissance was needed to locate targets and time strikes amid interservice disputes. The Regia Marina could obtain that reconnaissance through an auxiliary ship without consuming treaty carrier tonnage or reopening the political struggle over control of aviation. A sheltered seaplane base could search widely without revealing the battle fleet's position because aircraft returned to a separate anchorage. It still could not provide the continuous fighter patrol and outer air-defense ring of a true carrier. The arrangement was therefore a politically attainable solution to one naval requirement, not a substitute for every function of carrier aviation.