How much would naval warfare change if radar were developed before the First World War?
Short answerBritish gunnery and night fighting would improve sharply, radar data would feed fire-control tables, and early warning could also produce primitive fighter direction.
NotesBritain had the money, ships, and fire-control organizations to integrate radar observations into plotting tables quickly. The immediate payoff would be more accurate gunnery and far more dangerous night action, with early air warning and combat-air-patrol control as secondary effects. Even a 25 percent rise in British hits at Jutland would inflict substantially more damage on the High Seas Fleet.