The Type 45 cost comparison assigns £2.7 billion of a £6 billion programme to building six ships and £3.3 billion to research and development. The average construction cost is therefore about £450 million per ship, while dividing the whole programme by six produces the familiar £1 billion figure. Estimated costs for another six fall to roughly £300 million each for the next three and £250 million each for the following three. On those assumptions, another £1.6 billion would have brought the fleet to twelve ships for about £7.6 billion in total, a little under £650 million per ship including development. Reducing the order left fewer hulls to carry development costs already incurred.
Notable Point · 17:00-18:51
Why six Type 45s carried the development cost of twelve
A Type 45 cost estimate separates ship construction from development and shows how completing twelve destroyers could have reduced the average programme cost per ship.