The unbuilt Ersatz Yorcks are compared with Britain's Admiral-class programme, where repeated wartime revisions left only Hood completed. The distinction is between finishing hulls already under construction and authorizing new designs before combat lessons have settled. Completing existing work can still put ships into service, whereas starting afresh risks committing a navy to assumptions that wartime experience may soon overturn. Germany continued planning Ersatz Yorck while the war was still producing evidence that could change its requirements.
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Why wartime learning can outrun a ship design
Ersatz Yorck is introduced through a broader procurement problem: a long capital-ship build can be overtaken by lessons learned in wartime.