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
Cross-deck (naval terminology) repair or renovation. More commonly, a core group of experienced personnel may be cross-decked to a new ship to allow the vessel to come to full readiness more quickly. Generally, a move of this type will be between ships with similar missions, though not necessarily the same ship class. This can be seen as a means of propagating institutional knowledge. Entire naval air units, up to and including naval air squadrons, may be transferred to re-balance a task force. For example, during WWII, carrier task groups might suffer more severe attrition in a single carrier air group, leaving an under-utilized