Henderson warns that peacetime tests can mislead

Henderson believed the fleet overrated its high-angle fire-control system because realistic evidence was thin. Exercise boundaries made submarines easier to locate, and aviators pursued prestigious capital-ship targets that wartime crews might avoid under fire. The 4.7-inch gun may have been accepted on the strength of such exercise results, even though Henderson distrusted the available data. The Navy still had to make procurement and doctrinal decisions from the best evidence available while recognizing that peace could produce dangerous confidence.