Why rigorous gun and shell testing was discouraged

Realistic gun and shell trials consumed expensive ammunition and barrel life, giving peacetime institutions a reason to limit them. Manufacturers also had little reason to support tests that exposed faults in their products and reduced their profits. Royal dockyards could build and examine much of a warship themselves, but guns and shells remained important areas of dependence on private suppliers. The engine market offered more competing sources, whereas armament manufacture presented a narrower and more troublesome relationship. Wartime experience shifted the burden toward suppliers proving that their products worked instead of requiring navies to prove that they did not.