Originally Posted by
etudiant
Possibly this complexity is the Achilles heel of the entire concept.
Weapons that take a generation to bring into service are not practical for warfare, as they cannot be replaced if lost.
The Falklands effort saw a lot of creative and immediate improvisation. It might be useful for the RN to try to build on that achievement, even if only in studies, to stay abreast of what might usefully be done using such non standard methods.
Maybe if you have functioning shipyards and a design that's not too old and you made one recently then replacements will not take as long?