Australia repeatedly funded the navy strongly, then largely ignored it for twenty or thirty years. A later crisis prompted another expensive effort to restore ships, yards, and supporting capacity. New hulls were only part of the bill because skilled labour and supplier networks also had to be recovered. Continuous modest construction would preserve more capability between emergencies and reduce the premium paid during each restart.
Notable Point · 47:19-47:48
Why Australia's naval boom-and-bust cycle kept costing more
Repeated bursts of Australian naval spending were followed by decades of neglect, forcing later governments to rebuild capabilities they had allowed to decay.