Colonial escorts and joint imperial fleets

Flower-class corvettes and their successors could be distributed across colonial navies, with India one likely operator. Their relative simplicity would give those navies ships they could operate while passing the costs of operation and maintenance to the colonies. Further peacetime expansion could produce local destroyer flotillas or half-flotillas alongside sloops by 1944. Such forces would increase convoy-escort options and complicate surface-raider and submarine operations around the Empire. Australia already had cruiser and earlier capital-ship experience, while Canada had pursued steady expansion and had personnel working within the Royal Navy. More exercises and joint squadrons or task forces would connect these expanding services.