Why France selected the Dunkerque design
France selected the variant judged to meet its industrial and operational requirements.
Complete directory
Browse all time notes.
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
Reloading the 76 mm Sovraponte mounting
The reported reload time is under 20 minutes, with replenishment between engagements preferred to running empty.
Would a France-Japan war leave room for the Moroccan crisis?
The counterfactual turns on Britain's alliance obligations before the April 1904 Entente Cordiale.
Dutch sailing hulls and the shallow-water compromise
Dutch shallow-water hulls combined speed and good sailing qualities with disadvantages in rougher water.
A 62,000-ton British battleship with fifteen heavy guns
A hypothetical fifteen-gun British battleship would demand sustained construction capacity through the treaty years to reach service by 1939.
Kirov refits and Russian fleet resource choices
A November 2026 report about Pyotr Velikiy raises the prospect of concentrating resources on one modernised Kirov.
The Royal Navy if war began over Czechoslovakia in 1938
A 1938 war would confront a less prepared German fleet and give Britain an earlier start on emergency construction.
How small construction orders preserve Russian shipyard skills
Even a trickle of continuous construction can preserve warship-building skills and a limited industrial capability.
Why modern warships take longer to build
Modern systems add construction work, while a thin order book stretches the time needed to keep shipyards and skilled labour employed.
French naval-architecture theory and British building experience
Practical construction experience can affect how successfully naval architects implement an innovative design theory.
Henderson, Backhouse and wartime carrier employment
Henderson's carrier experience could have changed the employment of Courageous and Glorious and the air support available for a Far Eastern force.
Fighter cover for Prince of Wales and Repulse
Even a small fighter force is proposed as a means of changing the attack on Prince of Wales and Repulse, conditional on the Japanese aircraft's claimed lack of defensive armament.
Extra guns on ships and unbuilt designs
USS Texas and proposals associated with Goodall and Henderson illustrate the urge to use available space for more guns.
Computing demands in Type 26 and Type 31 upgrades
Future frigate upgrades are expected to introduce new capabilities and greater computing demands, particularly for systems using artificial intelligence.
Sizing a mixed broadside and central-battery ironclad
A hypothetical ironclad combining broadside and central-battery arrangements is compared with the Audacious class to estimate its length.
Halo ships against the Galactic Empire
A fictional matchup compares UNSC, Covenant and Forerunner ships through their weapons, shields, embarked craft and scale.
An escort carrier as transport and an offshore airfield for Israel
An escort carrier acquired to move people and weapons could also provide Israel with a mobile offshore airfield and greater strategic depth.
Rebuilding the interwar Dutch Navy around cruisers
A Dutch procurement counterfactual weighs heavy cruisers against battlecruisers and connects fleet strength to bases, crews and likely opponents.
A Dutch carrier for scouting, air defence and command
A carrier of roughly 15,000 to 16,000 tons is proposed to supply the reconnaissance, air defence and command functions of a Dutch cruiser force.
Indonesian crews for Dutch patrol vessels
Recruiting and training Indonesian personnel is proposed as a way to ease Dutch manpower demands, especially for smaller patrol vessels.
Could a European warship use only European systems?
Corvettes and lighter frigates are contrasted with demanding air-defence ships when assessing dependence on European and American suppliers.
CAPTAS-4 and Sonar 2087: recognising shared equipment
Different service names can obscure the use of the same sonar technology in the French and British navies.
A qualitative naval race needs role-specific comparisons
Competition in ship quality needs separate assessments of anti-submarine, air-defence and general-purpose performance, with consistent all-round designs valued alongside specialists.
F127 displacement and the limits of the frigate label
Germany's proposed F127 is compared in size with the Deutschland class to show how far modern ship labels can diverge from older categories.
Dutch ASW frigates and uncertain construction milestones
The Dutch ASW frigate programme illustrates why an agreement and a planned commissioning date do not establish whether a ship has been laid down.
Type 31 production halls need a steady order book
Expanding frigate construction capacity depends on predictable orders, while the Type 31 export model often places construction in the customer's country.
Henderson and Mountbatten as political operators
A brief disagreement distinguishes Henderson's political effectiveness from Mountbatten's reputation.
Designing a larger Leander successor with ASROC
A hypothetical first-rate ASW frigate keeps the Leander's gun and helicopter while adding space for ASROC, more 40 mm weapons and additional Sea Cat launchers.
A Type 22-era variant with Sea Wolf and Exocet
Extending the hypothetical Leander successor into the Type 22 period changes its missile armament while retaining ASROC.
ASROC and Ikara serve different ASW priorities
The preference for ASROC is tied to protecting a task group, while Ikara is favoured for a more deliberate hunter-killer pursuit.
Polish capital-ship ambitions after World War I
Polish interest in German battlecruisers and foreign battleships shows the gap between ambitious acquisition plans and the resources needed to complete a capital-ship fleet.
Could a Polish battlecruiser escape to Britain?
The hypothetical Mackensen-class acquisition is carried forward to the possibility of escape and continued service from Britain.
A Polish Mackensen at the Denmark Strait
A hypothetical Polish battlecruiser is added to Hood and Prince of Wales to consider how another heavy-gun ship would affect the Denmark Strait action.
Bofors rearmament for a hypothetical Polish battlecruiser
A proposed mid-1930s refit connects Polish interest in Bofors equipment with a larger hypothetical capital-ship gun order.
Danzig's ability to modernise a capital ship
An unfinished battlecruiser's construction at Danzig suggests capacity for a major refit, although the particular yard remains uncertain.
A Polish Mackensen at close range
A hypothetical Polish battlecruiser at Denmark Strait raises the problem of divided German fire and an aggressive close-range approach.
Naval fighting at Himalayan altitude
Pangong Lake is offered as a high-altitude example, with a caveat about what counts as a naval battle.
Weapons restrictions and violence on the India-China border
Restrictions on firearms leave room for violent clashes with other weapons in the India-China border confrontation.
Defeat, supremacy and revenge in an Azur Lane question
A fictional human-supremacist cult prompts a political argument about how defeat can undermine superiority while humiliation can fuel revenge.
An unidentified naval officer's photograph
An attempted photograph identification shows the limits of recognising an officer from facial resemblance and a cap.
When is a navy larger than its country needs?
German naval commitments and American strategic depth show why fleet size needs to be judged against a country's tasks.
Can small drones make a Taiwan invasion impossible?
Small UAVs are assessed through countermeasures, casualty tolerance and the different ways armed forces approach amphibious landings.
World War I, cultural memory and tolerance for casualties
Contrasting experiences of World War I connect casualty tolerance with historical memory, while leaving room for individual differences.
Accounts of boarding actions without clothes
Unusual boarding stories prompt a distinction between a Canadian submarine capture and an earlier Scottish captain's experience.
Missiles for a modified Type 45 in Sea Power
Tomahawk, SM-3 and possibly ASROC are suggested for an enlarged Type 45's additional Mark 41 cells.
Separating bow repairs from a cruiser's refit bill
New Orleans shows why a battle-damage repair cost can be difficult to separate from a simultaneous modernisation.
China's casualty tolerance and the purpose of a war
A challenge about the one-child policy leads to a distinction between public support for border clashes and support for a Taiwan campaign.
A shadow blockade of China's energy trade
A hypothetical Indian campaign of inspections and paperwork illustrates how delays can disrupt a regular flow of energy imports.