The discussion first asks what a Warspite armed with twelve 15-inch guns would do to opposing forces in the Mediterranean. It then imagines a 28-knot Queen Elizabeth carrying that battery, a combination that contemporary fleets could not match directly. Even a later reduction to nine 15-inch guns would leave the Royal Navy with an unusually fast battle line, while battlecruiser designs such as Renown could trade a smaller main battery for still more speed. Some United States Navy officers already viewed the Standard-type battleships as threatened by Queen Elizabeth and Hood. The counterfactual magnifies an existing design pressure instead of creating the naval arms race from nothing.
Notable Point · 28:45-30:36
How a twelve-gun fast Queen Elizabeth could reset the arms race
A 28-knot Queen Elizabeth with twelve 15-inch guns would outclass contemporary battle lines and intensify pressure for larger American and British capital ships.