Yorktown turns first-strike doctrine into ship design

Yorktown and Enterprise are the first large American fleet carriers designed as carriers from the keel up, and their design follows American strategic needs. Their long range and spacious aircraft-support arrangements sustain the large air group required for raiding and first-strike battle doctrine. Three elevators and multiple catapults are intended to move and launch aircraft quickly, including a hangar-level catapult that can put fighters into the air without disrupting a strike ranged on deck. Radar soon changes the defensive problem, but the original design still embodies the pre-radar aim of finding and sinking the enemy carrier before its aircraft arrive. Air power then scouts, suppresses enemy aviation, and creates the conditions for cruisers and the battle fleet to act. Treaty limits prevent a completely unconstrained design, yet the class comes unusually close to turning the Navy's preferred doctrine into steel.