Sims turns the scouting role into a carrier problem

Sims shaped interwar US naval doctrine through repeated Naval War College wargaming after World War I. In those games, the Scouting Force evolved from a battlecruiser-centered idea, through a temporary battleship solution, into a carrier-centered one. The Lexington hull and power plant became the basis for a nominal 37,000-ton aviation platform whose aircraft could scout, raid, strike, and help eliminate enemy carriers. The mission remained familiar even as its main instrument changed from fast surface ships to air power. Doctrine still had to establish that the carrier should operate behind cruisers and aircraft screens instead of exposing itself as the literal tip of the scouting spear.