The return to the transferred American gun industry extends the counterfactual beyond Britain and the United States. Italy and Japan are imagined moving toward 18-inch battleship guns, with Austria-Hungary also taking part in the wider competition. Germany is described as reluctant to accelerate the race because each increase in ship cost renews arguments with the army. The Royal Navy's stronger budgetary argument rests on Britain's dependence on sea control to use its land forces overseas. The comparison concerns different institutional constraints on naval spending within the imagined technological race.
Notable Point · 2:36:12-2:37:23
An accelerated gun race strains German naval budgets
The gun-industry counterfactual produces a wider naval race, with Germany constrained by competition for army funding.