Ambition constrained by what shipyards could build

The Caracciolo class was a balanced design that the Regia Marina could plausibly construct. It exemplifies a wider postwar pattern in which navies remained conservative about feasibility while still demanding aggressive combat capability. Ambition had to keep machinery, armour, weapons, and fitting-out work within existing infrastructure. More extreme projects such as Japan's Number 13 class might have exceeded practical capacity. A successful naval design must fit the industrial system that will build and complete it, rather than merely satisfy an admiralty's desired specifications.