I think someone should POINT OUT that once before, because of an aversion to spending money on the “warmongers” the United States was lucky not to lose a war.
After the Depression, in the 1930’s, the U.S. Navy was so restricted regarding “live ammo” expenditure that torpedoes fired by U.S. subs were not, in practice, as fired in war.
The navy did NOT know that the practice shots, not “LIVE” and not blown up, were quite a bit lighter than the actual war shots.
In the early part of the war, submarine warfare was a failure, more lethal to US subs than their Japanese targets.
Our torpedoes ran much deeper than desired settings, and thus tragically UNDER their targets. How many U.S. subs were lost, with their crews, specifically because of this.
Many of those that actually hit did not explode due to malfunctioning UNTESTED firing mechanisms. Only when “WAR” shots were fired into depth marked nets off Hawaii, was the problem realized and corrections made.
Then our “silent service” proceeded to do the job they had not been allowed to do.
One could say, “History is repeating itself.”
Well that is only half the Story the other Problem that did not come about due to the lax testing was that the magnetic Pistol Exploders were not working and that contact firing pins were too weak to work with a “good” hit! Cutting the military only costs lives! The Torpedoes were not fully reliable till late 1943! if you wish to live in peace you must prepare for war!