Wargaming culture reinforces large US carriers

The three leading carrier navies used games and exercises differently under treaty and strategic pressure. The US Naval War College embedded wargaming throughout professional education and encouraged officers to question senior assumptions, a culture traced to Sims and Reeves. The Royal Navy gained a different advantage from frequent large fleet exercises, but its games also exposed the resource impossibility of fighting Germany, Italy, and Japan at once. Japanese games were technically serious yet could be constrained by the need to affirm confidence against overwhelming odds. Games shaped what each institution was willing to discover about itself. In the American case they repeatedly reinforced the design lesson that Ranger and Wasp were usable compromises, while Yorktown and Hornet better supported large air groups and sustained strike generation.