Why peacetime navies struggle to preserve fighting leadership

Would completing more New Orleans-class cruisers have changed early American naval outcomes?

Not necessarily, because uneven captain quality mattered more, and the deeper requirement was a system that identified and trained effective force commanders.

The outcome of early Pacific cruiser battles depended as much on captains as on ship design. Uneven United States Navy leadership reflected a service without recent combat experience, while peacetime missions left less room to practise high-end fighting. The Royal Navy responded to a similar problem by cultivating an elite identity in its destroyer force. Command of an eight- or nine-ship flotilla let the service test whether a captain could coordinate a formation and later perform an admiral's task-group role.