The statistical logic of a two-carrier fleet collides with the ordinary reality of maintaining complex ships. The calculation assumes one carrier can remain available while the other undergoes deep work, provided every procedure and reliability estimate holds. A failed seal or another unexpected defect can remove the supposedly available ship at exactly the wrong moment. Redundancy protects against the interaction of low-probability events that an availability matrix treats separately.
Chapter · 56:29-58:18
Two carriers cannot guarantee one available ship
A two-carrier fleet may satisfy an availability matrix, but deep maintenance and an unexpected defect can still leave no operational flight deck.