Why rival navies might struggle to copy Britain's lead

Germany could retain conventional machinery to protect its construction schedule, or delay ships while pursuing gas turbines. German engineers had comparable jet ideas, but political upheaval and a later concentration of resources would leave them trying to match a British program that already had aircraft and motor-boat prototypes. Even a one-year delay to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau could alter readiness for Norway, while a longer search for new machinery could delay the Bismarck program as well. Japan possessed the technical capacity but faced competing research priorities, and Italy faced similar resource constraints. Choosing turbines would require diverting effort from other work, so a British lead would create difficult industrial choices.