British plans for expanding Commonwealth navies in a major war

Did planners expect the Royal Indian and Royal Canadian navies to expand during a major war?

Yes; expansion was planned, but both forces grew more extensively than British planners had expected.

British planners expected Commonwealth naval forces to expand during a major war. The Royal Indian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy formed part of those assumptions rather than appearing as wholly improvised wartime additions. Planning estimates still understated how large that growth would become. Imperial and Commonwealth force generation supplied a planned source of naval capacity whose wartime scale surpassed prewar expectations.