The counterfactual program calls for eight simple sloops each year, with every ship serving ten years actively and another ten in reserve. Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel would turn those stored hulls into a mobilization base for anti-submarine and convoy work. Continuous construction could also sustain yards and build the same turbine supply chain needed for destroyers. The scheme might have provided at least 160 vessels in 1939, with an accelerated late-1930s rate reducing dependence on emergency Flower-class corvette construction.
Notable Point · 44:04-46:58
A proposed interwar sloop reserve for 1939
Building eight simple sloops annually for active and reserve service could have placed roughly 160 adaptable escorts at Britain's disposal in 1939.