Speed, cruisers, and the Mediterranean air threat

Burzagli supported destroyers and cruisers as the basis of a modern, flexible Mediterranean force. Italian ships had limited need for oceanic range but could expect to operate within reach of land-based bombers and torpedo aircraft. Interwar planners therefore treated speed as a defensive asset that could make an individual warship harder to hit when it lacked a task force's wider protection. Mediterranean geography and air threat shaped warship characteristics more directly than prestige or paper fleet comparisons.