Labor cost drove shipboard automation

How much did the world wars and Cold War contribute to shipboard automation?

Less than the global economy and the rising cost of personnel; automation became attractive when machinery cost less than maintaining larger crews.

Rising personnel costs mattered more to shipboard automation than the world wars or Cold War alone. Machinery became attractive when it cost less than employing people to perform the same tasks. Factory automation followed the same economic logic. The later classroom comparison qualifies that logic: reducing labor costs does not guarantee that a machine can perform every part of a human role.