Fleet size sets the case for naval bases

What is your view of Royal Navy base cuts, including submarine bases, in the twentieth century?

Bases matter, but without enough ships to use them they cannot be sustained; rebuilding the fleet has to come first.

Force structure and shore infrastructure are linked. The preferred outcome is to have both ships and bases, but a fleet reduced below the level needed to justify them will ultimately lose more infrastructure as well. The argument concerns the sequence in which scarce defence resources are restored and does not treat bases as unimportant.