Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:31:02-2:34:12

What different interwar navies needed from cruisers

An interwar design question becomes a comparison of national needs, from British numbers to the US Navy's cruiser shortage and the Omaha class's timing problem.

Cruiser DesignInterwar NavyOmaha Class CruisersRoyal NavyUS Navy
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Question

What cruisers would major navies have needed in an interwar crisis?

Short answer

The answer varies by navy: Britain needed numbers, the US badly needed cruisers, and the Omaha class was better suited to an earlier strategic era.

Notes

The Royal Navy is imagined benefiting from many capable light cruisers, while the US Navy is judged to have needed cruisers of almost any credible sort. French and Italian requirements could also be met by D-class-like ships, while Germany needed later minelaying cruisers and Russia simply needed modern cruisers at all. Omaha is not dismissed as inherently useless; it is seen as a design that would have suited a pre-First World War environment better than the postwar world it entered. The value of a cruiser is therefore tied to the navy, date, and strategic problem it must solve.