How quickly wartime attack boats could be built

How long did a PT or MTB take to build compared with a destroyer?

Often only weeks for the largely plywood boat, provided engines and a skilled workforce were available.

The largely plywood hulls were comparatively quick to construct and did not demand destroyer-scale facilities. With skilled labor, a boat could be assembled in weeks rather than the much longer cycle required for a destroyer. Engines were the difficult long-lead component because high-output machinery could not be improvised as easily as the hull. Production speed therefore depended on preserving both specialist boatbuilding labor and a reliable powerplant supply. Rapid hull fabrication did not remove the industrial bottleneck that constrained fleet expansion.