The opening uses 1930s fleet planning to explain why investment in naval aviation did not make new battleships irrational. Aircraft were improving, but planners could not know whether dependable ship-killing capability was five, ten, or twenty years away. Until payload, reliability, and accuracy were proven, abandoning modern battleships risked confronting rivals whose fleets still possessed them. Funding both types therefore hedged against the uncertain timing of technological change, and several major powers could still obtain budgets for parallel development.
Notable Point · 1:39-3:11
Why interwar navies invested in battleships and carriers together
Aircraft promised to transform naval warfare, but uncertainty over payload, reliability, and accuracy made parallel investment in capital ships a rational hedge.