Why Britain could still evaluate the Mark 6 exploder

Why would the Royal Navy consider the US Mark 6 magnetic exploder after experiencing problems with its own magnetic detonators?

Because testing another design could expose useful differences, and British failures involved operating conditions as well as exploder sensitivity; the two systems did not share identical assumptions or faults.

The panel rejects a national caricature in which one defective system automatically discredits another country's work. Britain could purchase or trial the Mark 6, dismantle it, and compare its behavior with adjustable Royal Navy exploders. Some apparent failures around Bismarck also involved release height, sea state, and torpedo entry into the water rather than the magnetic mechanism alone. A crucial difference was British awareness that the Earth's magnetic field varies geographically, knowledge that made conditional adjustment possible even when sensitivity remained troublesome.