Item Info
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:
A consensus on 'battleship supremacy' prevailed among maritime nations, in part because of the low rate of technical change relative to the previous half century, in part because of vested organizational interests.
In the eyes of the majority of postwar officers...airpower had not yet proved itself on the battlefield. Despite debate that the airplane had undermined the supremacy of the batteship, the First World War had demonstrated that aerial power could strengthen the position of a surface fleet in important ways. The airplane could operate against the submarine, provide invaluable reconnaissance, and improve the accuracy of artillery fire.
Goldman, Emily O. Sunken Treaties: Naval Arms Control between the Wars. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State UP, 1994. Print.
By the late 1930s, naval aviation was on the verge of becoming a viable resumptive anomaly to the battleship technological paradigm. Its capabilities had increased markedly since 1924, although assessments of naval aviation's ability were varied.... Senior umpires were typically members of the battleship thought collective, and their rulings, and periodic prejudices, often worked against any weakening of the battleship technological paradigm.
McBride, William M. Technological Change and the United States Navy, 1865-1945. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2000. Print.
Creator Name: Sykes, Charles Henry, 1882-1942 - Artist