It never occurred to anyone in the room to question that assessment of their ally, and the Trade Secretary shrugged.

“I only raised the point because someone on the other side is likely to contrast it with our own building policies,” North Haven said. “But what about the argument that our current superiority in that class could be challenged by someone else? The Peeps, for instance. They’ve certainly seen them in action, and they have a powerful incentive to acquire the same sorts of capabilities, especially since we don’t have a formal peace treaty with them.”

Janacek glared at him, and North Hollow shrugged again, this time half-apologetically.

“I’m only trying to play devil’s advocate, Edward,” he said mildly. “You know if I don’t ask you these questions now, the Opposition will certainly ask them later. And someone on the other side is just as certain to point out that even though we have a monopoly on the new types, the numbers of them we have are relatively low in comparison to our total ship list. They’re going to suggest that if another navy launched a concerted effort to overcome our lead in the new classes, we don’t have a sufficient numerical advantage to guarantee someone like the Peeps couldn’t succeed in the attempt.”

“You’re probably right,” Janacek conceded sourly. “But in answer to your question, our only conceivable enemy for the immediate future would be the Peeps. As you say, they undoubtedly have an incentive to match our capabilities, but, frankly, their tech base is much too far behind ours for them to duplicate our hardware any time within the next ten years or so, by ONI’s most conservative estimate. I’ve discussed this very question with Admiral Jurgensen, and he assures me his analysts are virtually unanimous in that opinion.”

“Furthermore, even if they had the technical ability to build matching ships, they’d still have to lay down the hulls, build them, crew them, and then train them up to an operational standard before they could pose any threat to us. As all of you are aware from the ONI reports I’ve shared with you, Theisman, Tourville, and Giscard are still busy fighting their own dissident elements with exactly the same obsolescent ships they used against us. We’ve seen absolutely no sign of any enhancement in their capabilities. Even better, from our perspective as a potential adversary, the way they’re continuing to kill one another off is not only continuing to cost them their more experienced officers and crews but producing a steady drain even on the ships they do have.”

He shook his head.

“No, Stefan. Only the Peeps have any reason to threaten us, and they simply don’t have the capability. By the time they could begin to produce a fleet which could threaten us, we’d have plenty of lead time to increase our own SD(P) and CLAC strength. In the meantime, sixty-four of the new superdreadnoughts are more than sufficient.”

“I don’t doubt it,” North Hollow said. “But those sixty-four ships can only be in one place at a time, or that’s what an Opposition analyst might argue, anyway. So what argument do we use to justify not completing all the other SD(P)s already under construction?”