Without a naval treaty, Britain might have developed the purpose-built Hermes concept into a faster carrier of roughly 22,000 tons. The Washington settlement instead made conversion tonnage attractive and pushed each navy to exploit its allotted hulls differently. Japan sought aviation strength for long-range attrition and massed alpha strikes, while the United States gained the prestige and capacity of Lexington and Saratoga. Britain stepped away from the largest-carrier contest because worldwide commitments made the number of hulls more valuable than winning a size ranking.
Notable Point · 1:15:14-1:18:21
Treaties divert national carrier design paths
Without treaty conversions, Britain might have enlarged Hermes while Japan and the United States followed different doctrinal priorities.