British, American, and Japanese carrier designers all wanted large strikes, continuous operations, and survivability. Treaty limits forced each navy to sacrifice capabilities according to its own doctrine and priorities. One counterfactual removes cumulative carrier limits while retaining the Washington Treaty's 27,000-ton limit per ship. Another gives carriers an allowance comparable with capital ships, such as fifteen carriers alongside fifteen capital ships. Either change would permit larger carrier forces and reduce the pressure to divide a small allowance among hulls that could not combine all the desired capabilities.
Notable Point · 1:23:32-1:25:47
Larger carrier allowances could reduce design compromises
Removing or greatly increasing cumulative allowances could let navies build carriers that combined more of their shared operational requirements.