A universal carrier ranking compares ships built for different jobs. Yorktown suited the United States Navy's long-range Pacific strike problem, while Ark Royal is the closer British counterpart because both were shaped around a strike-carrier role. British armoured fleet carriers supported battle fleets operating through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, North Atlantic, and South China Sea, where protection and persistent operations carried different weight. A design could excel in its intended geography and prove less effective when another navy's doctrine set the standard.
Notable Point · 22:23-26:29
Matching carrier design to doctrine
A carrier-doctrine comparison ties Yorktown, Ark Royal, and British armoured carriers to the missions each design was built to perform.