Existing facilities make the Indian counterfactual a path of gradual development rather than a new heavy industry created from nothing. Bombay Dockyard had built ships of the line from Malabar teak, and Indian yards serviced cruisers, destroyers, and at times battleships during the Second World War. Sustained cruiser and sloop work from the 1920s could have expanded steel production, machinery skills, and yard capacity gradually instead of demanding a crash program in 1940. Because turbine-powered sloops used many of the same industrial ingredients as destroyers, this program could also have eased a later shift into faster escort construction once treaty limits ended. The same yard might then have progressed to light or light-fleet carriers during wartime.
Notable Point · 1:47:51-1:55:15
Bombay Dockyard as the base for Indian naval growth
Bombay's existing repair and construction facilities offered a realistic base for cruiser, sloop, and later destroyer production.