The gunboat was a peacetime instrument of inshore power projection and a wartime provider of fire support, minelaying, minesweeping, and other easily overlooked functions. The procurement problem is that governments may compare one cheap small warship with one expensive major combatant as though they perform interchangeable jobs. Navies need the large ship for capabilities concentrated in a single unit, but they need small craft in numbers across many simultaneous tasks. Modern offshore patrol vessels inherit part of the sloop and gunboat role, although they commonly lack minesweeping, minelaying, and anti-submarine equipment. The closing challenge asks how an interwar navy might secure a small-boat force despite political resistance, noting the Royal Navy's use of the less threatening label motor launches for its Fairmile program.
Notable Point · 1:54:31-1:57:34
Small ships, aggregate value, and modern OPV successors
The conclusion argues that navies need small vessels in aggregate, even when governments prefer individually impressive ships, and identifies OPVs as partial successors.