The Black Swan class drew on about thirty years of anti-submarine experimentation and ship development. Its orders preceded the outbreak of World War II, so its design cannot be explained solely as a reaction to wartime losses. The planning argument here links the programme to a 1942 readiness horizon after the Ten Year Rule ended in 1932. That interpretation treats the intervening decade as a period allowed for preparation, with implications for how much could be ready when war arrived earlier.
Chapter · 8:03:18-8:05:17
The Black Swans' thirty-year development lineage
Prewar orders, a 1942 planning horizon, and decades of anti-submarine development shaped the Black Swan class.