Persistent land-based air attack would make launching and recovering cruiser floatplanes difficult in the Mediterranean. That would limit the value of sending ships selected for their aviation capacity into that theatre. Tōne and Chikuma could instead support searches for surface raiders in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Their proposed role is to act as centres for raider hunting, with their aircraft extending the search beyond individual convoy escorts.
Notable Point · 1:34:56-1:35:39
Tōne and Chikuma fit ocean raider hunting
The Tōne-class cruisers' aircraft would be more useful searching ocean routes for raiders than operating under Mediterranean land-based air attack.