The cited report calls for more strategic as well as tactical exercises before deciding the future of battlecruisers. It points to a foreign design combining 26-knot speed, a 10,000-mile radius, and six 11-inch guns as the kind of threat that might make a fast counter essential. The Admiralty therefore warned against surrendering Britain's lead before exercises had supplied enough evidence for a final decision. The requirement fits trade protection and interdiction better than routine battle-line combat.
Chapter · 1:44:13-1:46:31
The 1929 exercise case for retaining battlecruisers
Exercise reports linked fast capital ships to reconnaissance and the threat posed by new long-range, high-speed foreign designs.