Why Britain did not order escort carriers before war

Carrier aircraft already figured in Royal Navy anti-submarine and surface-raider doctrine, and escort-carrier ideas had been studied during the 1930s. Exercises normally used older Argus and Hermes for anti-submarine work because exposing a valuable fleet carrier to submarines was a dangerous trade. Even when Flowers, Hunts, and other wartime escorts were ordered, the Navy did not order escort carriers. The procurement obstacle was the likelihood that government would treat fleet and escort carriers as alternatives within one fixed budget. Naval planners were simultaneously seeking fleet carriers, cruisers, escorts, and roughly twenty-five to twenty-seven capital ships for forces in home waters, the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean. Their continually updated lists of large merchant ships suitable for wartime use show that the conversion problem was being monitored even though no peacetime program was placed. Ordering cheaper carriers too early could therefore cost the Navy the larger ships it believed could not be improvised after war began.