The design begins with 9.2-inch main guns, but they look too slight for the proposed battlecruiser hull. The next choices cover capped shells, fire-control range, secondary batteries, bulkheads, draft, weight distribution, roll, and pitch. Reducing maximum bulkheads frees weight for the desired armament at some cost to underwater survivability. The final HMS Deterrence displaces about 45,000 tons and carries 15-inch main guns, twin six-inch secondary mounts, and quad 40 mm anti-aircraft weapons. Long range and a crew of more than 1,250 add operational costs to the construction bill. The exercise shows warship design as a balance of competing requirements rather than a search for a single maximum statistic.
Chapter · 2:15:58-2:31:34
Designing HMS Deterrence as a battlecruiser
A heavy-cruiser replacement becomes a 45,000-ton battlecruiser after a design process balancing armament, range, protection, stability, and crew demand.