Not_a_boffin,
You are correct in what you write. I would write though that redundancy is provided by having four smaller ships. I would also like to add that there is no point starting to build ships when one is going to be sold (probably) leaving us with one ship. From my experience you really need to have three/ four ships to provide full time use. You normally have two in various stages of refit and upgrades, one sailing back to port and one sailing out from port.
The fact that we can't afford any ships is irrelevant. Think of all those wasted billions that could have been used to purchase further Astute class submarines or Type 45 Destroyers.
Last edited by hval; 20th Mar 2012 at 22:01.
Reason: Added additional sentence