Mitchell and Senator Borah framed the contest as a cheap aircraft destroying a vastly more expensive battleship. The comparison omits the number of aircraft and bases needed to maintain coverage over a coastline or project power at sea. A battleship would also operate inside a maneuvering task group whose ships and anti-aircraft weapons fired back. Project B instead used old, stationary, unmanned ships without the latest protective thinking. The German targets did not embody contemporary British concepts being developed for the G3, N3, and related capital-ship designs. Unit price alone is therefore a poor measure of competing force structures or combat survivability.
Notable Point · 54:43-56:21
The cheap-aircraft argument ignored force structure and modern ship design
Comparing one inexpensive aircraft with one battleship concealed the number and basing of aircraft required, the defenses of a maneuvering task group, and the obsolescence of Project B's targets.