The Royal Navy could fire and recover exercise torpedoes across a worldwide operating network rather than relying on a narrow test programme. Its interwar training and exercise resources were functionally generous despite wider government cuts. Live firing also consumed shells approaching the end of their safe storage life, turning stock rotation into useful practice. A comparison with the pre-Civil War Spanish Navy shows the opposite problem: ships and crews existed, but insufficient testing and exercising limited readiness. Weapon reliability depends on repeated fleet use as well as laboratory design.
Notable Point · 29:43-31:19
Why global deployments gave the Royal Navy a torpedo-testing advantage
Worldwide operations, ample exercise resources, and routine live firing gave the interwar Royal Navy repeated chances to expose weapon faults.