The counterfactual programme begins in 1922 and builds roughly twenty-eight ships per year across the Commonwealth and Britain. Even after selling, transferring, or assigning older vessels to reserve and utility duties, the system could retain about 280 modern escorts organised into thirty-five groups. That force would give Atlantic convoys deep protection from the opening of the war while freeing fleet destroyers for offensive duties. Every participating yard would also be ready to accelerate Hunt-class destroyer, fleet-destroyer, or light-cruiser production.
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A Commonwealth sloop programme transforms convoy readiness
Regular sloop construction across Britain, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and South Africa could have created hundreds of escorts and ready shipyards before 1939.