Should an aircraft-heavy scout cruiser seek local superiority?

Would a reconnaissance cruiser need 8-inch guns to defeat enemy scouts and gain local superiority?

Not necessarily; its aircraft should help it avoid hostile screens, and the original fifteen-gun 155 mm battery could meet likely light-cruiser opponents.

A scouting line might encounter enemy scouts and need local fighting superiority. A cruiser carrying as many as eleven aircraft, however, should detect and skirt hostile screens instead of colliding with them blindly. If contact did occur, likely British opponents included Town-class light cruisers with twelve 6-inch guns. A fifteen-gun light-cruiser Mogami could meet that threat without the cost and risk of an 8-inch battery. Combat power must therefore be judged alongside the reconnaissance system instead of treating heavier guns as the automatic solution.