Could interwar infrastructure and quality control improve Italy's fleet?

Could Italy have improved quality control and infrastructure before the Second World War, and what would investment from the 1920s change?

Yes, but it required sustained money and political commitment; early infrastructure investment compounds over time, while the notorious main-caliber dispersion problem involved more than simple factory inspection.

Dockyards, transport, skilled labor, and industrial plant become more valuable as each round of investment builds on the last. Starting in the 1920s would therefore give Italy more capacity and flexibility by 1939 than a late emergency program could provide. The obstacle was not technical impossibility but the willingness and money to sustain the effort. The panel also cautions against reducing every Italian gunnery problem to quality control, because most ship systems functioned reliably and the main-caliber ammunition and dispersion issue had several causes.