Why did aircraft carriers replace battleships as the leading offensive weapon in World War II?

During World War II, the aircraft carrier replaced the battleship as the primary offensive weapon in naval warfare primarily due to a massive disparity in operational range.12

While traditional battleship guns were limited to a range of approximately 20 miles, aircraft carriers allowed fleets to project combat power up to 300 miles away by launching, recovering, and storing aircraft capable of destroying enemy ships. This capability transformed the carrier into a mobile airfield at sea, fundamentally shifting the paradigm of naval engagement.123

By the late 1930s, the maturity of dive-bomber and torpedo-plane designs, combined with improved flight-deck technology and refined strike tactics, enabled carriers to deliver decisive pulses of combat power. Although battleships remained vital components of the fleet—often serving as part of the circular defensive screen protecting carriers—the ability of carrier-based air wings to strike targets far beyond the reach of conventional naval artillery made them the decisive instruments of victory in the Pacific theater.23