Q&A · 2:59:41-3:01:10

Radar before the First World War

A technology counterfactual places early radar inside existing British fire-control infrastructure and tests the result at Jutland.

Question

How much would naval warfare change if radar were developed before the First World War?

Short answer

British gunnery and night fighting would improve sharply, radar data would feed fire-control tables, and early warning could also produce primitive fighter direction.

Notes

Britain 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.