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> couldn't read your source without a signup

Honestly worth the sign-up, but here you go in the meantime [1]. (Never mind, Substack got smarter.)

The greater loss ratio claim is limited to aircraft carriers in 1942. America lost as carriers as Japan that year and wound up the year in worse shape, numerically, despite Midway. What got us through wasn’t a decisive naval battle in June of ‘42 but the production infrastructure laid down in the decade prior. We built our way out of the hole, because in attritional war, stocks are less important than flows.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20240611165959/https://phillipsp...



OK, if you're talking about 1942 only, I could see it. And the quote I cited did say "in late 1942", so, OK, I should read more thoroughly.

> in attritional war, stocks are less important than flows.

Yeah. And a prolonged war turns into an attritional war. And the US isn't in a great place for that right now.

One good thing about the Ukraine war is that it pointed this out to the US, now, while we're not directly involved.




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