I'm not certain of the math behind 5, soon to be 6, ships being able to replace 12.
We in Canada seem to be the world's leaders in being able to convince ourselves that doing the same, or more, with less resources is actually possible and advisable.
World's 2nd largest land mass, world's largest coastline, a 3 ocean country with 1 of the 3 oceans pegged as the place where the next mad, desperate scramble for natural resources in an ever warming world will occur. We have a navy smaller and less potent than 25yrs ago and will continue to do so for the next 20yrs. Our population 25yrs ago was just over 30 million and its projected to be 46million in 25yrs - that's a 50% population increase over those 50yrs yet we are constantly being lead to believe that we can't afford a larger navy or CAF in general.