A benchmark navy is the force against which other navies are habitually measured. That position often belongs to the world's first naval power. The status is strategically valuable and expensive because its owner must make choices and sustain commitments that lesser navies can avoid. The rest of the video tests that idea through presence, technology, prestige, and force design.
Chapter · 0:11-3:00
What makes a navy the benchmark
The opening defines a benchmark navy as the world's leading naval power and introduces the special commitments and premiums that status creates.