Working out a 35-escort Royal Navy

This planning scenario assigns three frigates and two destroyers to a carrier group, regarded as a sustainable peacetime screen needing reinforcement against a major threat. Allies, redirected taskings, and activated available ships provide the proposed sources of that reinforcement. The calculation then adds deterrent protection, home-water duties, Gulf and South Atlantic patrols, and standing-group commitments. It arrives at a simultaneous requirement for five destroyers and seven frigates. The proposed total is about fifteen destroyers and twenty frigates, using a mixture of one-in-three and two-in-five availability assumptions with additional margin. Those 35 escorts are a rounded force proposal rather than the exact result of multiplying each operational requirement by three. The comparison is with the Royal Navy's 1998 escort total, when large Type 22 frigates could cover some destroyer duties beyond their own role, although they could not provide area air defence.