Originally Posted by
Asturias56
"Astute" was completed in 2007 - so that's a +21 year programme for 7 boats. Gives you some idea of how hard it is to build up a fleet.
There was also a built-in timeline, to have continuality of build for the ship yard. Going into the next class. This was also suppose to happen for the Collins. Only they stopped all plans, the gov of the day had other ideas. Hence another reason of where we are today.