The CSN - A Jeune École Fleet?

A valid point that what a country "can" afford is largely a question of how much they are willing to commit. Japan was a good example, striving to compete with Britain and the United States despite a significantly smaller economy.
Strongly reminded in that connection of what I was reading yesterday in Morison's history of US naval operations in WWII... regarding the poor record of US torpedoes in the early phase of the war, he noted that "poorer" Japan had expended large numbers of live torpedoes and real hulls in thorough testing, and the "rich" U.S. had severely restricted their testing due to 'economy measures.' And it showed in the resulting products... well over a third of U.S. torpedoes seem to have been effective "duds," from running too deeply, from firing problems and the like; on the other hand, if there was a better torpedo in the world than the Japanese 'Long Lance' in 1942, I've never heard about it.

ETA: I can't remember where I first saw this observation, but it might have been Robert A. Heinlein: the most expensive military in the world is a second-best military.
 
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