The United States had a long coastline, a new overseas empire, and growing naval ambitions, but ship proposals still had to survive a cautious Congress. That pressure made the US Navy unusually conservative when asking legislators to authorize new designs. The Royal Navy could point to HMS Warrior and HMS Dreadnought as earlier technological risks that had strengthened deterrence and temporarily secured peace. Those precedents gave British institutions more freedom to gamble on the Queen Elizabeth class. Warship design therefore depended on engineering knowledge and the political record a navy could present to its funders.
Notable Point · 28:42-30:56
Why British and American institutions approached warship risk differently
Congressional oversight encouraged conservative American battleship proposals, while Warrior and Dreadnought gave the Royal Navy political confidence to attempt another leap.