American planners expected a visible crisis to provide two or three years in which to build the cruisers and destroyers missing from their battle fleet. Ordering the small ships later would also make the screen newer than the capital ships it supported. The Omaha cruisers nevertheless entered service in the 1920s, too late to provide a modern cruiser screen during World War I. Their mixture of casemate guns and turrets also retained features associated with earlier protected cruisers. Large numbers of Wickes and Clemson destroyers were absent when the United States entered the war and became available only towards its end or afterwards. Deferring the screen could work only if another navy occupied the enemy while the missing ships were designed, built, and brought into service.
Notable Point · 1:20:45-1:23:08
Why America's modern fleet screen arrived too late for World War I
The Omaha cruisers and mass-produced destroyers show the limits of building battleships first and assuming a modern screen can follow once war approaches.