Shared modular systems depend on companies learning from one another

An inward-looking design culture is offered as a possible reason Blohm & Voss did not pursue a MEKO-StanFlex combination. The company produced capable designs, yet is criticised here for sometimes overlooking other firms' methods and reinventing solutions. Defence secrecy can encourage that habit when outside work is treated as mistaken or deliberately misleading. Such suspicion can prevent designers from learning from one another. Compatible equipment depends partly on a willingness to consider ideas developed elsewhere.