The final section poses an open design counterfactual. Italian Horizon ships carry three 76 mm guns, French ships carry two forward, and Britain's related Type 45 destroyers carry none. A common three-gun choice might have encouraged greater use of the weapon across all three navies during a period when many designs minimized visible armament. For Britain, this raises a further question: would the 76 mm mounts replace Phalanx, or would Type 45 carry three 76 mm guns, two Phalanx systems, and its 4.5-inch (114 mm) gun together? The question extends to later FREMM variants and whether other navies would have followed a stronger multinational example. The existing presence of 76 mm guns on almost all FREMM variants limits how much of that later adoption can be treated as hypothetical. The effects on weapon numbers and future designs remain open.
Notable Point · 48:09-50:58
What if Horizon had spread Italy's 76 mm emphasis?
An open design counterfactual asks whether common 76 mm armament across the Italian, French, and British Horizon partners could have changed later European warships.