Notable Point · 1:01:05-1:05:08

The treaty loophole for interwar escort fleets

Exemptions for small, slow escorts left room for a sustained interwar ASW program, with funding identified as the main obstacle to building it.

Anti-Submarine Warfare Black Swan Class Sloops Escort Vessels Flower Class Corvettes London Naval Treaty Naval Auxiliaries Sloops Washington Naval Treaty

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Notes

Small escort vessels had a route outside the principal treaty limits if they met the relevant speed, armament, and displacement criteria. The explanation uses a 2,000-ton ceiling, a maximum designed speed of 20 knots, no torpedoes, and no more than four guns of 3 inches or larger. Black Swan-class sloops, Flower-class corvettes, and small frigates illustrate the useful ASW ships contemplated. On this account, funding was the obstacle to ordering them in quantity. A later example proposes twelve sloops a year from 1922, producing a nominal total of 204 by 1939 and continuing work for the yards.