The postwar contest between aircraft and large naval guns did not end as soon as the Second World War did. Dependable air attack against surface ships was not yet an all-purpose answer, leaving older weapons and newer aviation capabilities in use at the same time. Technology rarely advances along a smooth upward line. Long-range historical summaries can make change look linear even when decisions inside the period move unevenly among competing systems. This uncertainty helps explain why capital-ship debates persisted despite the wartime achievements of naval aviation.
Notable Point · 3:32:07-3:33:02
Postwar air power and nonlinear technological change
A postwar naval reflection warns that reliable air attack did not instantly settle every surface-warship question and that technology rarely develops in a straight line.