The Royal Navy was often desperate for aircraft and valued American types partly because they avoided competition with the RAF for British spares. Even under that pressure, the Fleet Air Arm saw no need to add the Helldiver beside the Albacore, Barracuda, Firefly, Hellcat, and Corsair. Its useful bomb load and range did not compensate for the training and logistics of another specialized type when existing aircraft already covered similar strike work. The refusal is a useful test of operational requirements: an adequate aircraft can still be the wrong addition to a crowded carrier air group.
Notable Point · 54:36-56:07
Why aircraft shortages did not create a Helldiver need
The Fleet Air Arm's willingness to seek American aircraft makes its refusal of another capable bomb carrier evidence of role redundancy, not supply abundance.