The Royal Navy's battlecruisers had grown too large and support-intensive to serve routinely as foreign-station flagships. A counterfactual fleet of roughly six G3 battlecruisers alongside Hood, Renown, and Repulse would still have been scarce. Those ships would probably remain concentrated in the Home and Mediterranean fleets, where maintenance and rapid response were easier, rather than being dispersed to minor stations. A 10,000-ton cruiser could look inadequate beside contemporary capital ships, yet committing a 45,000- or 50,000-ton battlecruiser would waste a scarce strategic asset. That left a need for a larger heavy cruiser able to provide status and combat value overseas without capital-ship cost.
Notable Point · 11:29-14:50
Foreign stations still needed ships below the battlecruiser
Even a larger counterfactual battlecruiser fleet would have been too scarce and costly to replace heavy cruisers as routine station flagships.