The distinction is between wholly new invention and the wartime completion or practical application of work already under way. War can push an experimental system into service or concentrate effort on improving an existing technology, but it rarely creates an entirely new capability from nothing. This matters especially for small powers, which cannot assume that wartime urgency will compensate for weak prewar research and industrial investment. The same logic applies to raw materials: mobilization can improve extraction from known sources, but rarely conjures a new resource base on demand.
Notable Point · 12:23-13:22
War accelerates existing technology more than it invents
Wartime urgency usually turns experimental work into practical systems and improves resource use rather than producing wholly new capabilities from nothing.