Experience after the Napoleonic Wars and other conflicts informed an expectation that politicians would halt new construction once peace returned. The V and W building programme is interpreted as preparation for that interruption, providing ships that could serve through the 1920s. A later counterfactual imagines how advance warning of the Cold War's end might have encouraged the Royal Navy to order more ships after the Falklands War. The imagined carrier, submarine, and destroyer orders illustrate the argument about anticipating budget cuts; they are not an actual procurement programme.
Notable Point · 4:13-5:58
Planning for the postwar halt in warship orders
Earlier postwar construction pauses inform an interpretation of V and W procurement and a counterfactual about the Cold War's end.