The shorthand that each Type 45 inherently cost a billion pounds folds the class's development bill into only six completed hulls, although it was structured for nine to twelve ships. The next six are estimated at roughly another 1.2 to 2 billion pounds, producing twelve ships for about 7.2 to 8 billion in total. The average then falls toward 600 million pounds per destroyer. Cutting a class after paying its research bill inflates the apparent price of every ship while reducing fleet capacity.
Notable Point · 51:19-52:39
Why six Type 45s look like billion-pound destroyers
Development costs planned for nine to twelve hulls make a six-ship class appear far more expensive per destroyer than the follow-on ships would have been.