Now, we have a lot of threads about future of different navies, but how about trying to do some kind of compilation? Ie. ship programs are long winded, and we can probably try to do some 18-year estimation on what kind of forces various navies of the world will have around 2025? Naturally 18 years is a long time, but assuming current building and R&D programs go on, what's the short list for various navies in following rough ship classes:
CV/CVN
CVL
SSN
SSK
Area air defence capable ship (DDG/CG)
FFG/DD/FF/LCS over 2500 tons range
LPD
The reason I'm asking is, that it seems that a lot of people are ignoring the powerful naval build up of Asian countries, while the importance of European navies in the global scheme will be lower in the future, as displayed by the downfall of RN (and perhaps the downfall of Marine Nationale in the next 18 years..) in the post-cold-war era. Naval plans of China are somewhat shrouded, I know, but for most of the navies there are some kind of vision of the future.
As there are a number of knowledgeable people on various navies, please make an input and let's see what kind of discussions the balance sheet will produce!
Looking at what's on the drawing board, the RN of 2025 will be considerably more powerful the RN of 20 years ago . How did you come to this conclusion?