Why peacetime shell reform kept stalling

An Orion-class shell programme offered a peacetime opportunity to improve ammunition, but the Royal Navy needed more than a new gun calibre. Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers relied on trials using older armour, unrealistically thin plates, little or no obliquity, and ideal conditions that allowed deficient shells to pass. Jellicoe made progress as Director of Naval Ordnance and Third Sea Lord, yet promotion repeatedly handed the problem to a successor who restarted the work. Without combat damage or a public scandal, ministers had little incentive to admit that existing shells needed costly reform. These incentives make physical evidence from Goeben more plausible than voluntary prewar reform.