The unbuilt Malta class leaves no physical expression of British wartime carrier thinking comparable with the American ships that entered service. Actual operations also supplied different evidence from the pre-war exercises that had shaped both navies' expectations. Exercises produced useful information, but their rules, structure, and requirements could generate false positives. Combat experience let designers test older assumptions against damage, sortie generation, air defence, and sustained operations under genuine pressure. Exercises remain evidence, although they cannot fully substitute for war.
Notable Point · 49:49-50:46
War data corrects exercise false positives
Exercises generated valuable evidence about carrier operations, but combat supplied the concrete data needed to expose conclusions created by artificial exercise conditions.