The years 1946 to 1954 are identified as a period when larger experimental ships could have built experience with missiles. A cruiser of around 15,000 tons is suggested as offering more working space than the Tiger class. Another proposal imagines completing Lion and Temeraire and later converting them into heavy missile escorts along lines compared with Jean Bart and USS Albany. Talos would provide the anti-aircraft weapon, while retaining at least two main-gun turrets forward would preserve a substantial surface-fighting capability; the resulting escorts are acknowledged as less efficient. That idea is checked against the recollection, corrected during the exchange to 1946, that the battleship hulls had already been broken up. Unfinished light-carrier hulls are then suggested as more realistic candidates. The existing Tigers are criticised for using relatively small hulls that had been launched and left neglected before completion. Their suitability is compared unfavourably with the larger Edinburgh and Belfast hull design.
Notable Point · 3:28:11-3:30:58
Hull options for early British missile development
A larger cruiser or an unfinished carrier is considered as an early missile-development platform, while proposed battleship conversions run into hull availability.