Test infrastructure, class size, and readiness

Shore integration facilities are expensive program assets that support multiple ships. The Type 45 program was planned around twelve hulls, and the quoted £6 billion program cost included these facilities. Describing the result as billion-pound destroyers obscures infrastructure that can be reused for successive ships and later upgrades. A large navy may accept testing more equipment aboard successive ships because a delay to one or two hulls is easier to absorb. A small navy has fewer substitutes, so it has a stronger reason to complete extensive land testing and deliver each ship ready to operate from the start.