A modern equivalent of the Bathurst would provide minimum useful escort protection on secondary routes, below the capability expected of a Type 26 or a ship intended for major fleet operations. The proposed standard is a deliberately limited sixty-percent solution that local industry could build in numbers. What counts as the minimum changes over time: the larger frigates of 1943-44 carried substantially more armament and anti-submarine equipment than the earlier corvettes. The open question is whether countries could accept such a restricted specification as well as possess the physical capacity to build it. Leaving necessary escort duties uncovered would create opportunities for an enemy.
Notable Point · 1:29:29-1:32:15
Could navies accept a modern sixty-percent escort?
A proposed modern Bathurst equivalent raises an open question about building useful, deliberately limited escorts in the numbers needed for secondary routes.