Subdivision protects ships but competes with habitability

German First World War battleships and battlecruisers show how dense subdivision can make a ship difficult to sink. Their designers could accept tighter internal arrangements because the vessels were not expected to provide the same worldwide endurance and habitability as British ships serving across an empire. Modern designers often place hangars and flexible mission decks above the main buoyant hull so its lower volume can remain more thoroughly divided. Amphibious ships such as LHDs and LPDs expose the opposite tradeoff because their large lower well-deck spaces are central to the mission but complicate damage containment.