A useful fleet matters more than a perfect individual ship

The program's unit of analysis was a class of 2,710 ships, not a single cargo vessel. Features that would improve an individual ship could reduce how many hulls reached service and therefore weaken the fleet's aggregate ability to perform its missions. The same reasoning applies to warship classes: a design must be evaluated partly by whether the navy can obtain enough ships to cover the required tasks. The governing question becomes whether the class provides enough vessels to perform those missions, even when each hull accepts compromises. A better engine, shape, or speed can therefore become a strategic loss when it prevents enough ships from entering service.