Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 4:25:58-4:26:39

Why restoring every Second World War fleet would overwhelm modern yards

If every major navy suddenly recovered all of its Second World War ships and had to modernize them, the first problem would be rebuilding the yards needed to handle the work.

Fleet ModernisationNaval Industrial CapacityShipyardsWorld War II
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Question

What happens if the major Second World War navies receive all of their wartime ships again in 2020 and must modernize them?

Short answer

They would first face a shipyard and infrastructure crisis, making modernization extremely slow and expensive.

Notes

Governments would probably react with alarm at the apparently free fleets. Modern naval industries no longer possess the wartime number of yards, dry docks, and specialist workforces. Before meaningful modernization could begin, states would have to build or restore a large shore infrastructure. The program would therefore proceed slowly, with the cost and capacity of the yards dominating the usefulness of the old ships themselves.