The November 1954 cabinet meeting that decided the fate of the Royal Navy took six hours. Churchill was determined to limit the defence budget and the Royal Navy with a view to developing nuclear weapons and the less-vulnerable land-based airpower of the RAF. Two alternative cruiser designs were considered, with 60,000 shp COSAG propulsion foreshadowing the County-class destroyers, a 10,000 ton design, with three 6-inch twin and 4 twin 40mm, secondly an 8000-ton cruiser, a Mod N2, with six 5-inch (3x2) and ten 40mm. Performance of a new twin 5-inch (a large twin 5/56) firing 'light' shells, in a "Dido"-size 95-ton turret, offered less than the French cruiser "De Grasse" twin 127 mm (5 inch) using US ammunition or the Dutch 4-inch. The RN twin 5-inch in A and B positions was reconsidered and rejected in 1955 for the "Medium Seaslug cruiser" due to expectations of eight years to develop and as missiles were expected to be the 1960s. Dual development of the twin 5-inch and Seaslug was unaffordable. At the same time the Sea Lords rejected the proposal for a flotilla of fast escorts (4,500 ton "Daring"s with three 4.5-inch turrets) as unbalanced and under-armed; they wanted missiles on future warships. The actual weight of these proposals varied, depending on speed and on light armour of 225 to 500 tons.