Q&A · 1:41:28-1:42:16

Why early admirals would still build battleships

A historical-method answer warns against using later aircraft performance to judge early naval procurement.

Battleships Historical Method History Of Technology Naval Aviation Royal Navy

Question

Would different Royal Navy leadership before World War I have built a proposed battleship as a carrier instead?

Short answer

Probably not, because the aircraft and evidence available at the time did not yet justify replacing battleships with carriers.

Notes

Decision-makers must be assessed using the machines they could actually see in 1903 or the 1920s. Later carrier dominance does not make an early carrier investment rational when contemporary aircraft lacked the capability to support it.