Narrow construction efficiency differs from effectiveness across a ship's service life. Even commercial ships need a safety margin for unexpected loads. Warships benefit from still greater strength because they may serve for twenty to forty years, receive major modifications, and face weapons that could not be predicted at design time. Extra structure costs money and weight at the beginning, yet it improves the prospects for modernization and survival under future threats.
Notable Point · 3:53:39-3:55:56
Warship overengineering buys survival and growth margin
A comparison with nuclear engineering explains why the cheapest minimum-strength structure is not necessarily the efficient choice for a decades-long warship life.