Activity is not the same as preparation for the most demanding kind of war. Small expeditions and coercive operations give personnel real experience, yet they can also shape doctrine, equipment, and habits around opponents who cannot contest the sea on equal terms. Modern Western forces face a similar problem as they shift away from counterinsurgency while Russia and China develop peer and gray-zone capabilities. Recent operational success does not by itself prove readiness for a different threat.
Notable Point · 2:06:14-2:07:10
When small-war experience does not prepare a navy for peer conflict
Victorian expeditions kept the Royal Navy operationally active, but repeated small actions could still leave a service poorly oriented toward fighting a peer fleet.