Reserve destroyers trade bad headlines for real wartime resilience

Could the Royal Navy return to keeping ships in ordinary to extend life and support upgrades?

It would improve resilience, but political and media pressure against apparently idle ships makes it unlikely.

A fleet of nine Type 45 destroyers could keep three in ordinary to replace ships entering major refit or to mobilize in war. Such a system makes strategic sense because destroyers cannot be built quickly once a crisis begins. Headlines about ships spending zero days at sea would still invite politicians to eliminate the reserve as apparent waste.