Treaty limits affected the aircraft industry that served the fleet as well as the ships themselves. Fewer carriers meant fewer places to embark aircraft and a smaller likely order book for naval fighters. Reduced orders also sent less money into aviation and slowed development. An image of a Bearcat flying over USS Midway becomes a counterfactual picture of capabilities the US Navy might have wanted much earlier. Treaty-era fleet limits therefore reached through the procurement system into aircraft design and production.
Notable Point · 7:25-8:38
Treaties also slowed carrier-aircraft development
A Midway-and-Bearcat image leads into the argument that treaty limits affected carrier hull numbers, aircraft orders, and development pace.