Shipyard pride produced wartime light carriers of better quality than the government may have expected. One interpretation gives the Royal Navy's repeated three-year lifespan a second purpose beyond emergency planning. By presenting the ships as temporary second-rate assets, naval planners reduced the risk that ministers would pause Audacious, Malta, and later fleet carriers once cheaper hulls appeared. The service-life claim may therefore have been procurement politics as well as a technical forecast. This explanation is an interpretation rather than a documented official rationale.
Notable Point · 56:19-57:16
A three-year label protected the fleet-carrier programme
The Royal Navy's three-year service-life claim may also have stopped ministers from treating emergency light carriers as substitutes for first-line fleet carriers.