Economic shocks and the struggle to retain fleets

How will an economic shock affect fleets over the next five years?

Funding will become harder, but maintaining programmes is usually cheaper than cutting them and rebuilding capability later.

A financial shock would make military budgets politically difficult, while continued Chinese naval growth could eventually force a response. Retaining capability and active programmes is cheaper than allowing them to collapse and trying to rebuild later. Stop-start defence policy creates substantial long-term costs.