The familiar high-low mix becomes too simple when compared with third rates and fifth-rate frigates in sailing fleets: many of the most useful ships occupied neither extreme. Dreadnoughts could not be everywhere, while sloops lacked the power for many confrontations. Cruisers supplied the graduated response needed between those poles. The Chathams provide the case study for why a fleet's operational middle matters as much as its most glamorous or numerous ships.
Notable Point · 0:08-5:12
The high-low mix hides a navy's essential middle
The Chatham class introduces an argument that real fleets depend on capable middle-tier warships, not only capital ships and cheap patrol vessels.