 The Shōkaku @-@ class carriers were initially intended to have an air group of 96 , including 24 aircraft in reserve . These were envisioned as 12 Mitsubishi A5M ( " Claude " ) monoplane fighters , 24 Aichi D1A2 ( " Susie " ) Type 96 dive bombers , 24 Mitsubishi B5M ( " Mabel " ) Type 97 No. 2 torpedo bombers , and 12 Nakajima C3N Type 97 reconnaissance aircraft . All of these aircraft were either superseded by larger , more modern aircraft or cancelled while the ships were being built , so the air group was revised to consist of 18 Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters , 27 Aichi D3A ( " Val " ) dive bombers , and 27 Nakajima B5N ( " Kate " ) torpedo bombers . In addition , the ship carried 2 Zeros , 5 " Vals " , and 5 " Kates " as spares for a total of 84 aircraft . 
