Do warships upgrade, and if not, why not?

[sillyflower]

Like ground and air units when new reseaches are gained? Can't see evidence of it in-game or in the manual and ships don't have the on/off button for reinforcements and upgrades. However, substantial warship upgrades were really common during the war, especially for the bigger ships.

If they don't, what's the point of researching ship upgrades? I would be surprised if players bought more warships other than those needed for sub/anti-sub warfare. I did think briefly of getting another USA carrier at the end of '41 when research for '42 carrier ops had just completed.The computer wanted me to pay over 1000 PPs (which I did not have of course), and the war would be largely over before it arrived anyway!

[sveint]

They do, press the little magnifying glass.

[Dalwin]

This is always a complex question because the historical and practical answer is that only some systems could easily be upgraded and were. Those included radar and anti-aircraft batteries. More difficult but sometimes done were other secondary batteries or adding torpedo or depth charge racks.

Some projects would have been more difficult than building a new ship and were never or almost never done. These would include the main batteries on capital ships as well as engines or armor.

So in many cases (and in many games) the realistic answer is that some improvements are only applied to newly built ships.

[sillyflower]

Agreed that refurb is not as good as a new build. but the huge effect of advances in firing control should not be forgotten, as well as the US sub fleet's great leap forward in effectiveness when they got better torpedos.

All much more than you could to to an aircraft or vehicle.......

[AlvaroSousa]

Referb ships are repped as WW1 BBs with the advancement "warships"

Post WW1 BBs have "Heavy warships" advancement.

If you look at the tech table difference in new games it is substantial.