A reactor solves only the propulsion-fuel portion of a distant deployment. The ship can still exhaust missiles, shells, food, and other stores, so the ability to remain underway is not the same as the ability to keep fighting. The Falklands War supplies the practical warning because several Royal Navy ships depleted 4.5-inch ammunition that prewar thinking had treated as increasingly secondary to missiles. Consumption ran roughly five to ten times above the expected rate in major combat. Nuclear endurance therefore becomes misleading unless replenishment and rearmament are designed into the wider force.
Chapter · 24:25-25:49
Reactor endurance does not solve fleet logistics
A reactor removes propulsion-fuel limits, but distant warships still exhaust missiles, shells, food, and other stores faster than plans often assume.