A more capable ship is still only one ship and can occupy only one place at a time. Deliberate bumping, penetrations of task-group screens, and close manoeuvres were longstanding features of naval rivalry before the phrase grey-zone conflict became common. Escorts sometimes had to interpose themselves physically between an opposing ship and a carrier, accepting collision damage to protect the higher-value unit. A force procured only for statistically tidy missions has too little slack for coercion, repairs, or simultaneous demands that fall outside the model.
Notable Point · 53:55-56:24
Grey-zone friction defeats tidy force calculations
A more capable platform is still only in one place, while collisions, coercive manoeuvres, and maintenance failures create demands that a spreadsheet may treat as improbable.