Naval diplomacy is continuous, so fleet planning needs a peacetime calculation alongside its wartime one. The Royal Navy's 1930s case for seventy cruisers is an example of numbers shaped by worldwide presence requirements. Cold War planning understandably concentrated on a war that never became hot, and the daily work of maintaining relationships and influence received less attention. Force planners must ask how many ships are needed to wage peace as well as how many are required for combat formations.
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Fleet numbers for waging peace
Force planning must account for continuous peacetime naval presence alongside the ships needed to fight a major war.