The Second Five-Year Plan meets shipyard capacity

The Second Five-Year Plan moved from Project 21 toward eight Project 23 battleships and sixteen Project 25 ships. A more credible result is four ships from each group, alongside an intended force of 20 cruisers, 17 destroyer leaders, 182 destroyers, and 244 submarines. Project 23 construction began late because the Sovetsky Soyuz class needed longer slips, and the design grew from about 41,500 tons to roughly 58,000 tons. Starting the smaller Project 21 in 1935 or 1936 would have reduced that infrastructure delay. Yard views from June 1941 and June 1942 show the battleship and a cruiser making little progress after war began. The comparison exposes the distance between paper fleet strength and operational power.