The quickest British and American response to news of Japanese 18-inch guns is projected as a ship carrying twelve 16-inch guns. A modified Lion would continue the King George V design line. Separately, further development of fully armoured battlecruisers such as Vanguard could produce another fast-battleship type. This interpretation treats Vanguard as a post-treaty fully armoured battlecruiser and distinguishes her from the treaty-constrained King George V designs. Britain already had high-pressure boiler designs and development work, but the size of its fleet had discouraged a machinery transition. A 28-knot minimum would force the Royal Navy to return to builders such as Yarrow, Thornycroft, and John Brown for those boilers.
Notable Point · 14:29-16:50
Fast battleships force Britain to adopt new machinery
Modified Lions and later fully armoured battlecruisers would push the Royal Navy toward the high-pressure boilers it had previously declined.