Originally Posted by
Asturias56
well they started the design programme in 1998 I think and they said they'd buy 8 from the mid-teens
Its just a relief that the orders are finally in - usually there is a drip feed of a couple at a time followed by "saving" one or two at the end of the run. Plus there is the 5 T31's on order as well of course.
The original T22/23(R) studies began in 1996 or thereabouts. The first attempt at getting through Initial Gate was 99 IIRC. Then there were at least two more attempts in the early and mid-noughties. All of them foundered on the rocks of the Treasury question "can't you just keep the T23s going longer - are you sure you need a new ship?". Only when it became apparent that the cost (and safety) implications of doing that were moving from merely comical to catastrophic - not least the time in dockyard hands required to make them capable of extension - did common sense break out.
That was then followed by a design process from ~2009 that ended up in a giant game of chicken between MoD and BAES, which is one of the reasons that the design and build process is so long.