Foca disappeared while laying mines off Haifa in October 1940. Possible explanations include overlapping Italian minefields or the detonation of one of her own mines, but the cause is not settled. The uncertainty matters because Italian submarine-launched mines had documented quality-control concerns. Those problems fit the economics of niche production: a few dozen or low hundreds of weapons attract less inspection capacity than mass-produced equipment. A useful capability can fail when a small procurement run never develops the feedback and oversight of a factory-scale programme.
Notable Point · 19:26-21:46
Foca's loss exposes niche-production risk
Foca may have encountered an overlapping Italian minefield or one of her own defective mines, a loss that exposes weak feedback loops around niche weapons.