A second answer to the lost-equipment question asks for the complete tooling needed to reproduce the Des Moines class's triple automatic 8-inch mounts. The first priority would be restoring the known working design rather than allowing improvements to delay or disrupt the recovered process. Experimental changes could begin on a separate production unit after the baseline line was operating. That sequencing preserves scarce industrial knowledge while still creating room for modernization. The watch point is therefore about manufacturing discipline as much as the gun itself.
Notable Point · 4:10:49-4:12:05
Recovering Des Moines automatic 8-inch-gun tooling
An intact production set for the Des Moines automatic guns would be valuable only if engineers first reproduced the proven system before redesigning it.