Small-craft flotillas expand local defense and industry

Small motor boats required different procurement timing from long-lived sloops because their aircraft-engine technology was still improving rapidly. Even so, regular construction from the early 1930s could have equipped local defense flotillas in places such as Malaya and Singapore. The orders would increase demand for light weapons, torpedoes, and engines while giving manufacturers income and experience. In an interventionist program, these inexpensive craft link imperial defense to industrial preparation for a war governments increasingly expected within a decade.