Carrier battle group at the Battle of Midway. In contrast, the United States Navy deployed its large carriers in separate formations, with each carrier assigned its own cruiser and destroyer escorts. These single-carrier formations would often be paired or grouped together for certain assignments, most notably the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway. By 1943, however, large numbers of fleet and light carriers became available, which required larger formations of three or four carriers. These groups eventually formed the Fast Carrier Task Force, which became the primary battle unit of the U.S. Fifth and Third Fleets. With the construction of the large
1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy) the Japanese carrier force was again practically without aircrew and aircraft. This meant that at the Battle of Leyte Gulf the IJN carrier force was only used as a decoy force where it was ultimately destroyed, the battle that saw the last "Kidō Butai" survivor, "Zuikaku", along with "Zuiho", "Chiyoda" and "Chitose" succumbing to US air attacks of Admiral William F. Halsey's Task Force 38. 1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy) The also known as the "Kidō Butai" ("Mobile Force"), was a name used for a combined carrier battle group comprising most of the aircraft carriers and carrier air groups