Infrastructure supplied the hidden long lead time behind ships, aircraft, and tanks. Platforms cannot operate effectively without bases, fuel stocks, repair capacity, and the routes that connect those resources. Singapore Naval Base and Britain's worldwide fuel arrangements were support systems that had to be planned before a crisis. Judging rearmament only by the date a weapon enters service misses much of the time and investment required to make it deployable.
Chapter · 14:39-15:18
Infrastructure is the hidden lead time behind rearmament
Platforms become usable combat power only when bases, fuel, maintenance, and supply systems already exist to support them.