Doctrine defines small and fleet carriers

Interwar carriers divided broadly into small carriers and fleet carriers, with categories shaped by doctrine and expected air-group size. The US Navy preferred large air groups and used escort carriers during the Second World War to multiply coverage quickly. British cruiser-carrier thinking developed through Argus and Hermes toward Unicorn, light fleet carriers and escort carriers. Lexington and Saratoga were unusually large treaty-era conversions, whose inherited hulls also imposed efficiency compromises. In this classification, the supercarrier category belongs to the larger postwar designs.