Supplying oil for Yamato-class ships at Jutland
The Japanese fleet counterfactual returns to the tankers and British oil facilities needed to support a small detachment at Jutland.
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Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
Warspite replaced by a Vanguard-class battleship in 1939
A ship-replacement counterfactual tests how Vanguard's speed would change Warspite's famous wartime encounters.
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Naval gun calibre, rate of fire, and the case for larger weapons
A comparison of six-, 9.2-, and twelve-inch guns weighs projectile effect against rate of fire and possible future railgun performance.
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Mixed missile raids and the limits of small defensive magazines
Coordinated arrivals, defensive layers, and magazine limits complicate claims that small uncrewed vessels will be inherently more survivable.
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Taranto and the operations surrounding a successful strike
Convoys and ship movements around Taranto illustrate how a wider operation can help a small attacking force reach its target.
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The 1959 Future Frigate studies and the path beyond Leander
A tentative recollection links the 1959 studies to improved Leanders and Type 22, followed by a comparison of the 41- and 43-foot beams.
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An early DDG(X) programme and a larger Type 45 missile fit
A destroyer-building counterfactual prompts a proposed increase in Type 45's missile capacity.
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Samuel de Champlain encounters a Huron ballista-armed frigate
A hypothetical Huron frigate prompts a correction about Champlain's access to cannon and a discussion of alliances built through arms supply.
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Reported Type 83 cancellation and the Common Combat Vessel proposal
The reported Common Combat Vessel's numbers, timing, and command role resemble Type 32, leaving questions about the proposed Type 83 replacement.
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What a Huron ballista frigate implies about manufacturing
The ballista-frigate scenario shifts from weapons performance to the skilled manufacturing needed to build torsion engines.
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Twelve fully supported Type 45 destroyers
A force-structure counterfactual isolates how procurement quantity, power redundancy, infrastructure, and VLS fit interact.
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Why serving officers rarely criticize defence policy in public
A short institutional explanation distinguishes serving officers' private advice from the public advocacy expected of retired leaders.
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A communist Italy in 1912 and the likely European reaction
An alternate-history question places a revolutionary Italy on central Mediterranean shipping routes before the First World War.
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Why Leander conversion studies began during construction
A 1963 design question explains why conversion ideas appear even while a class is still entering service.
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Drones, warship numbers, and the infrastructure a plan requires
A repeated procurement question receives a qualified response: the plan still needs to be read, and drone expansion requires supporting investment.
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Western fleets without the post-Cold War peace dividend
Retaining fleet strength after the Cold War leads to a proposed British force of more destroyers and carriers, with a hypothetical mixed carrier air group.
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Why fleet recovery needs policy continuity beyond one Defence Investment Plan
Fleet recovery is weighed against political turnover, the match between strategy and funding, and how much of a headline allocation is new spending.
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Narvik as an accurately reported but underhyped naval battle
Warspite's prominence at Narvik provides an example of accurate reporting that can still leave destroyer actions underexplained.
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Election promises and the cost of cancelling defence programmes
An observation about election promises explains how announcing and cancelling the same programme can fall to different governments.
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Why Bloodhound is obsolete but domestic missile development still matters
Bloodhound is rejected for modern service, while a new British missile is considered a potentially useful option.
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A Lyon-class battleship with the Free French
Lyon's sixteen guns and projected 21-knot speed are compared with Lorraine in a Free French counterfactual.
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Twelve Type 45 Maximus destroyers replacing the current six
A fleet-transformation counterfactual asks what Britain could do with twelve fully equipped Type 45 Maximus ships arriving at once.
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Restoring Wilhelm III to the German throne in 1928
A restored Wilhelm III prompts disagreement about civil war, monarchist army loyalties, and the effect on Germany's political extremes.
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Would Britain and France intervene against a restored German monarchy?
The Versailles follow-up tests a restoration against foreign support, French reparations interests, and the willingness to intervene.
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Full-specification Type 82 destroyers in the Falklands War
A video-game unit question selects the real full-specification Type 82 design for its air-defence, communications, and command capacity in the Falklands.
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Why the Type 43 destroyer was studied with Harriers
A design oddity illustrates how naval studies can test an idea in order to demonstrate its limits.
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CVA-01's likely service life and replacement
A roughly forty-year service-life estimate makes CVA-01's replacement more likely than continued operation at the time of the discussion.
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Canada buying Admiral-class battlecruisers after World War I
An immediate Canadian order for two unchanged Admiral-class ships is tested against construction time before the Washington treaty.
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The Pacific air-defence burden without the VT fuse
Removing the VT fuse leads to a short answer about the greater volume of fire needed to keep attacking aircraft at a distance.
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Yak-38 as the other Cold War V/STOL fighter
The Yak-38 offers an overlooked Soviet route to Cold War V/STOL development, with hover engineering compared to the Harrier and F-35B.
Yak-36 lessons behind Soviet V/STOL development
The Yak-36 trials show how larger aircraft and higher speed ambitions shaped the Soviet route to V/STOL flight.
How the Yak-38 generated lift and controlled its hover
Lift engines and vectored thrust raised the Yak-38, while bleed-air nozzles controlled its attitude in a hover.
What the Yak-38's SAU-36 automatic controls did
Pilot override, attitude stabilization, damping and a dedicated hover mode show how the SAU-36 tried to make a complicated aircraft manageable.
Yak-38 thrust, payload and range
The Yak-38's weight allowance had to accommodate pilot, fuel and weapons, with drop tanks trading armament for greater range.
Why compare the Yak-38 with Sea Harrier 2?
Sea Harrier 2 had better quoted performance, but the comparison also examines the different development histories and incentives behind the aircraft.
Soviet risk culture shaped the Yak-38
The consequences of public failure encouraged cautious development as Soviet naval aviation faced political resistance.
Yak-38 testing delays and flight-crew shortages
A Soviet test-unit account connects the long development period to structural failures, engine damage, hover instability, and a shortage of trained crews.
Why six Yak-38s could still help a missile cruiser
Six Forgers were too few for continuous combat air patrols, yet they could identify distant contacts before the Kiev group committed its missiles.
Yak-38 accidents, serviceability and withdrawal
The accident and reliability figures show an aircraft that remained usable despite technical problems, with operations ending amid the upheaval of 1991.
Why 231 built did not mean 231 available Yak-38s
Short airframe lives, modifications and structural damage help explain the gap between cumulative production and the estimated seventy to eighty aircraft available.
What the Yak-38 gave the Kiev class
The Yak-38 supported a missile cruiser and ASW helicopter carrier whose mission differed from that of a Western strike-carrier air wing.
Kiev's foreign flights and the Minsk intercept
Kiev flew Forgers outside the Soviet Union before official service entry, and Minsk later intercepted USS Enterprise aircraft near the Soviet carrier group.
Why warship missions matter more than Top Trumps rankings
A Kiev, Type 45, and Iver Huitfeldt comparison shows why warships should be judged against their missions and balance of strengths.
Six hundred Yak-38 sorties in mission context
A Kiev-class carrier sustained 600 Forger sorties on a five-month transfer despite a small air group, short airframe life and maintenance demands.
Invincible's air-defence role and delayed early warning
The Invincible comparison connects its intended air-defence role with funding decisions that left it without early warning helicopters before the Falklands War.
Why the Yak-38's Cold War shock faded
Later knowledge of the Forger's limitations can obscure how unsettling Soviet fixed-wing carrier aviation looked when it first appeared.
A larger Kiev air group and a better Yak-38
A hypothetical Kiev with twenty improved Forgers and twenty helicopters raises questions about NATO carrier choices and the Cold War surface balance.
Sea blindness, surface superiority and short-war assumptions
The closing argument connects unseen maritime infrastructure and confidence in surface superiority with assumptions that made prolonged naval war seem unlikely.