The American numerical system answered a predictable wartime problem: the United States would expand rapidly after peacetime political limits on ships and personnel. A small pool of highly trained officers needed a structure that made command relationships explicit for many newly commissioned or wartime-only personnel. Numbered groups also made logistic requirements legible down to a granular level. Unlike Britain, the United States could not draw on the same depth of experienced reserve captains and officers accustomed to existing imperial formations. The doctrine was adaptable, but some early assumptions about what new personnel would understand proved too optimistic in practice.
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U.S. task-force doctrine planned for rapid expansion
The U.S. system made a smaller peacetime professional core capable of expanding into a much larger wartime navy with clear command and supply relationships.