Wartime production reached 175 Fletchers and roughly 343 destroyers across the four classes covered. Destroyers supplied the numerical strength of the task groups required for operations across the Pacific and elsewhere. Layered screens allowed carriers, cruisers, and battleships to reach positions where they could fight effectively. Producing that many escorts required designs suited to repeated construction. Their military usefulness therefore included the ability to be built in sufficient numbers. A sound individual ship and an adequate fleet of those ships were connected requirements.
Chapter · 19:03-22:05
Destroyer numbers make layered fleet screens possible
A production scale of 175 Fletchers and roughly 343 destroyers across four classes supplied the screens needed for distant fleet operations.