Battenberg, Fisher, and continuity in naval aviation

Even a short delay to the outbreak of war could have allowed more peacetime testing and fleet integration. The diplomatic counterweight is that extra time might also have weakened Anglo-Russian relations and the Triple Entente, so the counterfactual does not assume a politically unchanged Europe. A second counterfactual asks how Royal Navy aviation might have developed had Louis of Battenberg remained First Sea Lord. Battenberg might have preserved more continuity with prewar work, while Fisher tended to replace inherited arrangements on returning to office. Some of Fisher's individual choices may have been correct, but changing an organization simply because it belonged to a predecessor imposed its own cost. Leadership continuity can affect how quickly a new technology becomes operationally useful.