German naval threat perception and the army budget

When did another country's fleet become a British threat rather than a welcome contribution to maritime security?

Intent, geography, and the wider military balance mattered more than a fixed percentage of Royal Navy strength; Germany triggered all three concerns.

Germany combined a powerful continental army with a nearby fleet explicitly marketed against British sea power. That mixture of declared intent, geography, and land power made German expansion more alarming than American shipbuilding, which Britain could interpret as another navy taking responsibility for its own waters. German industry could build advanced ships in quantity, but each qualitative jump raised the naval bill. That intensified the political contest with an army facing France and Russia for limited funds. No fixed percentage can define the threshold; threat perception depended on purpose and the whole military balance.