American cruisers were rarely intended for prolonged independent operations under persistent threat. Scouting ships were expected to use speed and zigzagging to evade submarines, while combat-oriented cruisers would normally have destroyers nearby. Those assumptions made hydrophones or sonar seem like expendable weight, space, personnel, and equipment. Treaty tonnage was only one constraint: shipyard dimensions, fitting-out capacity, crews, and logistics also limited what the navy could build. Fleet organization and industrial capacity made specialization an institutional choice as well as a hull-level decision.
Notable Point · 6:13-7:47
Why US cruisers relied on speed, screens, and fleet support
US doctrine expected scouting cruisers to evade submarines and fighting cruisers to operate with destroyers, allowing designers to spend scarce ship and fleet resources elsewhere.