Taranto was originally intended as a multi-carrier operation. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Royal Navy worked on coordinating carriers, arranging their aircraft operations, and separating flight plans so the ships would not interfere with one another. Wartime commitments then dispersed the available carriers and made such concentrations difficult to assemble. A pause in carrier construction at the start of the war compounded the shortage.
Notable Point · 3:09:47-3:10:24
Why Royal Navy multi-carrier plans exceeded wartime opportunities
Interwar work had addressed coordinated carrier operations, but dispersed wartime commitments often prevented the Royal Navy from assembling the planned force.