Make the flotilla the treaty unit

A flotilla of eight 1,600-ton destroyers and a 2,000-ton leader totals about 14,800 tons. On that basis Britain and the United States might receive twenty flotillas, Japan fourteen, and France and Italy eight each. The wider scheme tentatively gives Germany two flotillas and the Soviet Union four, extending the unit-based method beyond the five principal treaty powers. Counting complete formations would connect treaty arithmetic to the way destroyers were organised and employed. The historical combination of eight 1,500-ton ships and a 1,850-ton leader would total 13,850 tons, only 950 tons less per flotilla. Providing one such formation for each of fifteen capital ships would require 207,750 tons, leaving the actual 150,000-ton allowance 57,750 tons short. That calculation still excludes screens for carriers and destroyers needed for independent duties.