After reserving tonnage for leaders, Britain or the United States could choose 120 ships at 1,400 tons, 112 at 1,500, or 105 at 1,600. That spread amounts to roughly thirteen to fifteen flotillas, making a two-hundred-ton design decision strategically significant. Unlike the Royal Navy's comparatively fixed desire for seventy cruisers, the preferred destroyer mix depends on how each navy values hull numbers against capability. The extra displacement might buy seakeeping and equipment, but the smaller design supplies more hulls for worldwide commitments. Construction policy would also matter because a navy could build matched leaders and flotillas annually or pursue lighter leaders and destroyers to stretch the allowance further.
Chapter · 34:14-39:12
Destroyer quantity versus individual capability
Within a fixed allowance, 1,400-, 1,500-, and 1,600-ton designs produce materially different flotilla counts and combat capability.