How requirements became Royal Navy warships

The Board of Admiralty could ask for a new class and receive several options from the Third Sea Lord, including two closely matched serious choices and one clearly unsuitable comparator. Once the Board selected an option, the Controller supervised detailed design, chose yards, managed construction, and approved technical revisions without returning every change to the full Board. The process could also begin inside the Controller's departments when scientific reviews and fleet exercises revealed a future requirement. In that path, the same office framed the need, prepared the design choices, ran the acquisition, and secured political funding. The sequence shows why the post joined technical authority with unusual agenda-setting power.