The postwar ten-year programme and global reach

The 1945 ten-year programme totalled 4,356 vessels. Its ocean-going component included nine battleships, twelve battlecruisers, thirty heavy cruisers, sixty light cruisers, nine fleet carriers, six light carriers, eighteen large monitors, and 144 large destroyers, alongside three submarine sizes. Patrol ships, gunboats, and landing vessels supported local security and strategic mobility in Baltic, Black Sea, and Scandinavian waters. Completing the programme by 1955 would require capital ships to enter service in groups roughly every two years. An initial group of three battleships and two battlecruisers commissioned around 1949 would confront Britain and the United States with a major response problem long before all 4,356 vessels existed.