Twenty-six-knot Queen Elizabeths in the Mediterranean

How would Italy respond if all five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships could make twenty-six knots?

Italy could do little beyond its existing program, while its older rebuilt battleships would lose much of their ability to outrun British pursuit.

Italy had little capacity to answer five fast British capital ships beyond completing its own Littorio program and relying on its reconstructed older battleships. Several historical withdrawals by Conte di Cavour- and Andrea Doria-class ships would become much harder because the Queen Elizabeths could match their speed. The Italian rebuilds still made sense: they refreshed shipyard expertise and produced useful Mediterranean ships able to fight many opponents and escape stronger ones under historical conditions.