A 32-year replacement cycle for submarines and escorts

A proposed 32-year service life translates fleet size into a regular delivery schedule. Sixteen attack submarines and sixteen destroyers would each require a new vessel about every two years, while twenty-four frigates would require three deliveries every four years, or one every sixteen months. The extra submarines provide margin above a twelve-boat minimum when hard use shortens individual service lives. An optional force of twenty-four offshore patrol vessels could follow the frigate cadence eight months later and support minehunting or minesweeping. Carriers and ballistic-missile submarines could still arrive in larger batches while the other programmes provide continuing work. The scheduling discussion contains verbal slips, but the later recap clearly gives a two-year cadence for destroyers and attack submarines.