A fleet of nineteen escorts cannot create enough demand for several specialist yards to compete or innovate continuously. Keeping separate facilities alive through small runs of Type 31 variants, Type 83 destroyers, and a future Type 26 successor would still require many more orders. Two yards producing variations of the same limited programme do not automatically form a competitive market. Without enough throughput, specialization can harden into dependence on a single government customer. Fleet numbers are therefore an industrial-policy question as well as an operational one.
Notable Point · 51:15-54:28
Fleet size and the economics of yard competition
A small escort fleet and intermittent orders cannot sustain the multiple specialist yards needed for genuine competition and continuing innovation.