War Plan Orange was the 'USA verses Japan' war plan - the one that was actually used (with minor modifications).
War Plan Red was the 'USA verses the entire British Empire all at the same time' plan.
While the general flow of the strategy match the plan very closely (leapfrog strategy), war plan orange actually stipulates a mostly intact surface combatant to commence Mahanian-style surface battle. A tactics that IJN actually anticipate (and hoped for) with the "decisive battle" doctrine.
While the general flow of the strategy match the plan very closely (leapfrog strategy), war plan orange actually stipulates a mostly intact surface combatant to commence Mahanian-style surface battle. A tactics that IJN actually anticipate (and hoped for) with the "decisive battle" doctrine.
I have actually read the War Plan Orange version from early 1941 as part of my Military History studies, it was pretty much used as it was laid out with only minor modifications - these being dealing with the lack of sufficient heavy combatants (battleships) to have the protection desired for the fleets. Carriers were very heavily focused upon in the 1941 plans - the fact that we were already building most of the mass number of Fleet Carriers that would take part in the war before it started kind of proves this.
Most people seem to fail to realize that the US kept and maintained a Naval Doctrine based on Decisive Battles all the way through the war - and still maintains them to this very day. The US Navy has been using Mahan's theories as the base of our Doctrine since he penned them, and the man flat out predicted the importance of air power and submarines in future warfare. Japan was simply using a literal historical perspective written by Mahan to decide current and future doctrine, when the man himself was looking ahead to new wars and plotting new ways to old problems. That being said, most people fail to realize that in the US Navy's definition, there WERE several Decisive Battles during the war. The Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, just to name two, were the types of battles that the Late War Plan Orange called for - the plan never called for 'giant fleets of battleships closing to within visual distance to shell and be shelled', instead it called for a more 'engage the enemy fleet and destroy them with extreme prejudice' approach, which was perfectly fine with Carriers.