Torpedo doctrine reflected national strategy, not just engineering

The closing summary rejects the idea that weapons develop in a vacuum. French planners applied a highly scientific approach to a torpedo-centered denial theory, while Britain professionalized the weapon but used flotillas to free a battle fleet for offensive action. The United States moved between these ideas, and Japanese experience in the Russo-Japanese War pushed doctrine toward a more fleet-centered British-style model. Across every case, destroyer design followed the intended use of the fleet as much as the specifications of the torpedo itself.