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Cruiser Control Groups were a naval formation of the Imperial Akitei Navy from 1931 until 1973, when the last Kiheishima class were decommissioned. Designed as flexible and versatile formations, the Control Groups were primarily tasked with commerce protection, anti-submarine warfare and commerce raiding however they could also be attached to Fleet units or grouped together to become Fleets in their own right.

Inception (1924)
The origins of the Cruiser Control Groups lay in Akiteiwa's traditional Cruiser force of, and   which were tasked with the traditional roles of commerce raiding and protection. These ships would often be grouped into ad-hoc formations and tasked with chasing down enemy commerce raiders. However during the Grand Campaigns the Admiralty board came to conclusion that the Tethys Sea was far too large to effectively control with the limit detection afforded by cruisers. Convention at the time suggested that in order to meet these requirements more ships would need to be constructed, the logical conclusion of this being a significant submarine force. However due to political reasons, the Akitei government would not authorise the application of, insisting on the traditional application of. To remedy this, the Admiralty ordered several fast merchant ships converted to to take pressure off the traditional Cruiser Force so that they could focus on the mission of protecting commerce. These events coincided with the continued issuance of as Akiteiwa converted parts of its merchant marine into a  navy. Even with these measures, the Cruiser Force was stretched to its limit, as it could not exert its presence across the millions of square mile of ocean necessary. As the war progressed, the Admiralty observed the continued effectiveness of aircraft aboard its converted as long ranged scouts, able to increase the detection power of the fleet quite considerably. No sooner after this was noticed the Cruiser Force lobbied the Admiralty board heavily to experiment with incorporating naval aviation into the Cruiser Force, requesting that experiments be undertaken right away as to the feasibility of installing a compressed air aboard a cruiser. The addition of aviation was considered of the utmost importance to the mission of commerce protection as it could allow a comparatively small unit of cruisers to control a disproportionately large amount of sea.