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Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior
"Most" ships, true. But the link that was posted proves what I said about the US having it on some ships (5) prior to the US being attacked. And as early as 1938 on two ships. The Japanese, OTOH, had been on a war footing for years prior to PH and had not made any appreciable implementation of radar into their fleet. Despite having access to German technology, and knowing that radar was widespread in the British navy. |
The Japanese weren't facing anything like the best the UK had to offer what with the UK itself struggling to survive back in Europe. Post Singapore, the UK no longer had any significant ability to penetrate into the Pacific either - that ocean was effectively controlled by the Japanese.
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Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior
Appropriate to ignore the UK Royal Navy, which had the most widespread usage of radar at the time Japan declared war on the UK and the US?
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Given that Singapore fell VERY soon after the declaration of war (only about 2 months), it is definitely worth discounting the UK naval forces when discussing Japanese naval capabilities - Japan just wasn't likely to meet the UK in battle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior
The Japanese had had access to German radar technology. They chose not to do much with it.
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The Germans themselves didn't really see how much of a game changer it could be. Why would the Japanese have been any different given that they were effectively uncontested rulers of pretty much half the world?
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Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior
The real point is that 95th Rifleman asserted that the Japanese had the most "modern" fleet in the world. They had the newest ships, but using the term "modern" is subject to some serious dispute, as it very much depends on what factors one chooses when defining "modern".
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Yes it is. The Japanese ships were modern by the standards of the time. A few short years later at the end of the war though and they were hopelessly outclassed. But that's not just technology, but in crew quality, especially aircrew. By the latter stages of the war, they'd been reduced from an extremely professional and capable force to having to resort to suicide attacks by pilots who barely knew how to take off (landing in many cases was not taught at all).
Anyway, getting back to the topic, China, should it so wish, could have a naval force at least the equal of any other on the planet in relatively short order and there's really not much anyone can do about it. At the moment however they don't appear to be all that interested in projecting power much beyond their borders so it's unlikely we'll be seeing any US style super carriers any time soon - there's just no real requirement/justification for them.