Why Britain built the R class and what might have followed

Why did the Royal Navy build the R class, and what might have come next without war in 1914?

The comment says the R class traded speed for numbers alongside the slower battle fleet. A later programme might have added more 15-inch guns or answered American 16-inch plans.

A commenter presents the R class as a deliberate cutback built for numbers rather than the best battleship Britain could design. In that calculation, eight ships could nearly replace twelve older 12-inch battleships and operate with the slow 13.5-inch fleet, so Queen Elizabeth speed was unnecessary. The response treats the successor as an open counterfactual. If war had waited until 1916 or 1918, the Revenge and Queen Elizabeth classes would have entered service before the next super-dreadnought choice, and announced American movement toward 16-inch guns would have shaped Admiralty thinking. Possible answers include twelve 15-inch guns or a larger calibre, but the outcome remains unknowable.