Planners had to judge weapons by the performance they could obtain rather than by their eventual potential. Early aircraft, aerial torpedoes, and bomb loads could not yet deliver the reach or reliability familiar from the Second World War. Contemporary promises about lasers, railguns, and uncrewed aircraft illustrate the same uncertainty over whether a promising technology will mature in ten, fifteen, or twenty years. The Queen Bee target aircraft, already used in the 1930s for anti-aircraft gunnery practice, shows that a concept can exist long before later operational expectations are fulfilled. A navy therefore has to fund experimentation while still buying proven systems able to fight if war arrives first.
Notable Point · 3:52-9:14
Why 1920s planners could not assume carrier supremacy
Later carrier successes did not make long-range aerial torpedo attack a dependable capability in the early 1920s.