What might Courageous, Glorious, and Furious have looked like if they followed the path toward the Admiral class?
Short answerThey could have resembled enlarged Renowns with three triple 15-inch turrets, creating a nine-gun evolutionary design.
NotesThis counterfactual sends Courageous, Glorious, and Furious down the existing Renown design path rather than into their historical large light cruiser forms. The alternative would be a 30,000-ton-plus battlecruiser built around three triple 15-inch turrets. Nine guns in three mountings would preserve a powerful broadside while evolving a proven fast-capital-ship hull. Applied to Hood, four triple mountings would produce a twelve-gun ship. That heavier battery would require more power to maintain speed.