The Royal Navy example makes availability central: covering roughly twenty-five stations drove a requirement for about seventy cruisers once maintenance and rotation were considered. A navy with only a few local commitments can afford to put more money into each individual unit. A ship that suits one force may therefore be too expensive, too scarce, or too specialized for another even if it is impressive on paper. The Deutschland comparison shows why national strategy, not a top-trumps comparison, determines whether a design is affordable.
Chapter · 45:11-49:24
Fleet numbers limit the individual cruiser
A global navy cannot spend the full budget on a handful of exceptional ships when it needs hulls in many places at once.