Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbuna
I'm afraid that was not always the case.
USS Iowa.......................Laid down June 1940 and Commissioned Feb 1943
USS South Dakota...........Laid down July 1939 and Commissioned March 1942
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Not to be a nitpicker but for, say, Iowa you are looking at 1938-1939 for order and design, making it effectively prewar. It also took nearly half a year before it was actually committed to operations.
If you decided you needed a new battleship after the war had started to replace losses, most likely you would not get it before it was game over. That is what I was trying to say.
Yes, programs started before the war could and did yield results within useful time, but if you were starting from scratch it would not be possible to get them ready quickly enough. Typical example would be HMS Vanguard, despite being ordered in early 1941 and being designed to make use of existing components to expedite construction it was not ready before it had become irrelevant.