Dreadnought fleets could become dangerously unbalanced

The same force-structure problem appears in the dreadnought-era comparison between Germany's High Seas Fleet and Britain's Grand Fleet. German investment in the battlefleet produced an unbalanced force with too few cruisers, while American congressional priorities imposed a similar battleship emphasis on the U.S. Navy. Some of Germany's newer cruisers had originally been ordered and financed by Russia rather than produced through a balanced German programme. Britain also needed more cruisers, but it had greater government spending power and a larger shipbuilding base to draw upon. That industrial depth included yards and skills developed during the earlier expansion of the sailing navy. Fleet balance depends on budgets and industrial structure as well as the quality of a navy's headline ships.