Peacetime weapons procurement programs (anticipating a short conflict) seem to emphasize a broader range of performance goals. Cost has become a more significant consideration when the sustained losses of prolonged conflict are recognized. A primary consideration of industrialized nations embroiled in the second world war became: What type of ship (or airplane or tank) can we produce and man in the numbers required to replace losses? Given the difficulty the United States has experienced finding and keeping nuclear propulsion plant operators for its peacetime submarine fleet, one might question the ability of a nation to train a sufficient number of personnel to build, operate, and maintain an expanding fleet of nuclear submarines. A wider variety of civilian industries and job skills are adaptable to building and operating conventional diesel-electric machinery; and those production and training logistics could tip the balance in favor of a less capable submarine. =AL=