Autoloaders would reshape ships and fire control

How might early autoloaders affect the First World War?

They would increase ship size and intensify the demand for accurate, technologically advanced fire control.

Rapid-firing turrets demand more volume and weight, so even destroyers would tend to grow. A higher rate of fire also consumes more ammunition and makes accuracy more important, because a navy gains little by merely throwing shells faster. Early autoloaders would encourage heavier investment in fire control, electronics, and the scientific work that later made radar militarily useful. The counterfactual changes whole ships and supporting technology rather than simply replacing a hand-loaded mounting with an automatic one.