Were BB Armor Schemes Misguided?

[RamscoopRaider]

The USN fleet was really top heavy though pre-war. They didn't have anything really in the way of light cruisers until the 20's with the Omaha's and pre war and pre the 4 stacker building programme they had about two dozen destroyers. The rest of their fleet was battleships, dreadnoughts and a series of large armoured cruisers.

That actually makes sense in the US position. Capital ships take longer to build than cruisers, destroyers and escorts. If war isn't an immediate possibility, and for most of that period it wasn't, then focusing limited peacetime resources on heavy units makes sense, lighter units can conceivably be ordered in the lead-up to a war when budgets become less skimpy and be ready to partake in the war, while capital ships ordered in that time are much less likely to be ready in time to be useful

 

[jsb]

The other thing to remember is that although ranges are going up form dreadnought onwards, till you get radar (very later 30s) you just might get a very short range night action so the belt has to deal with both long and very short ranges (if possible )

JSB