The 1916 Naval Act authorized a much larger program of construction to be undertaken before July 1919. It included ten battleships, six battlecruisers, ten scout cruisers, fifty destroyers, and extensive submarine construction. Twenty destroyers were to begin as soon as practicable, with a $1.2 million unit ceiling excluding armor and armament. That was $275,000 above the previous year's destroyer ceiling. At least four of those ships had to be built on the Pacific coast under the Atlantic-cost-plus-transfer limitation. The increase in scale therefore retained a geographical construction requirement.
Chapter · 38:20-41:15
The 1916 Naval Act shifted destroyers to mass procurement
Congress moved from six destroyers in 1915 to 50 in the 1916 program, raising the unit ceiling and pairing the order with a much larger fleet expansion.