Research and development for the Type 45 was funded for a planned class of twelve destroyers. Building six spread that bill across half the intended hulls, producing the headline figure of a billion pounds per destroyer even though the cost of building each ship was lower. The next six are estimated here at probably £2.4 billion. On that assumption, twelve ships would have cost £8.4 billion, averaging £700 million each. These hypothetical figures distinguish a programme's average cost from the cost of adding ships after development has been funded.
Notable Point · 13:08-13:46
Type 45 cancellations and misleading unit cost
Cutting the Type 45 program from twelve destroyers to six loaded research costs onto fewer hulls and inflated the apparent price per ship.