[Nick74]

I was interested to see the Admiral, who accepted a’slight’ Dip in the number of surface combatants, during the increase in the size of the overall fleet, as 2 frigates were disposed of before the new (naturally) more potent vessels come into being.
This pre-supposes that they will built in a timely fashion, unlike the A Class submarines, which will see the first of class being retired just in time for the last of the new builds completes.
I will also be interested to see where the matelots to man2 carriers and all these new ships will come from, when recruitment continues to fall. Although I did read somewhere that the higher ranked officers would be taking pay cuts to cover the improved rates of pay for junior ranks.
So whilst we will have plenty of people to crew the ships, there may be another dip in the number of more senior, experienced crew.
Maybe some of the 10000 troops being chopped may consider a career afloat