Scuttlebutt 14: Aircraft Carriers

Yes. A modified Hermes-style design could carry about 24 aircraft for reconnaissance and fighter duties while remaining a limited fleet asset.

Small reconnaissance carriers could let Japan concentrate its fleet-carrier allowance on strike power, with four 20,000-ton ships competing against three of 27,000 tons.

Ranger and Wasp would probably lose their rationale, while Hornet would remain likely because she was a full Yorktown-class carrier rather than a compromise small design.

A working light-carrier category could multiply flight decks, make major carriers more important, and encourage Britain, America, Japan, and other powers toward multi-carrier tactics.

Carriers could choose when to strike a fixed airfield, but one deck often lacked enough aircraft to suppress a resilient base; extra decks might help Lexington, although both sides would probably have more carriers.

A hypothetical light-carrier treaty category turns displacement into a choice between more decks and greater capability per ship, with Britain's global commitments favouring wider distribution.

Carrier purchases by the Dominions could preserve extra imperial flight decks through treaty negotiations, especially when Britain presented them as ASW and maritime-security ships.

Yes. It could support a Dido-like American cruiser or a more heavily armed Atlanta-like escort, with air-defence value that could outweigh the six-inch gun's advantage in surface action.

The United States could expand its shipyards and order more Yorktowns while developing a light carrier. Britain could adapt the existing Unicorn support-ship design, with individual treaty size limits still applying.

An earlier American carrier programme would require new shipyard infrastructure, with competing demands on construction capacity and investment.

They would probably bring more engine orders before guaranteeing high-performance fighters. Ark Royal and American carriers still carried protection despite lacking the British armoured-box arrangement.

It was technically plausible, but it required substantial reshaping forward of the cockpit. The Navy had sought Hercules engines and been told their supply was already committed elsewhere.

A contemporary journalist interpreted restricted engine access as an attempt by the RAF bomber faction to protect its control of Air Ministry priorities.

Several modern Dominion battlecruisers would reduce wear on British ships, provide fast assets for distant operations, and strengthen the hunt for German surface raiders even if Force Z itself drew on Pacific forces.

Larger hulls make reload and magazine arrangements more plausible, which is why modern debates often jump from destroyers and frigates to much larger ship concepts.

The class would probably split into batches: some ships completed to the original design, some converted into carriers, and perhaps others redesigned toward the better-protected end of the battlecruiser spectrum.

Invincible and HMS Tiger illustrate how machinery power density changes the space available for a capital ship's speed, protection, and fighting role.

The case for eight-inch guns on Lexington-class carriers changes when treaty rules restrict the alternative of building more cruisers.

In the December 2025 assessment, it has working ideas about personnel, logistics, and escorts and remains open to revising them through experience.

Yes. He was William Archibald Davidson Forbes, an important Royal Navy design figure who worked below Goodall and Henderson and sometimes oversaw the carrier department.