With Germany's fleet expected to disappear after the First World War, British planners looked toward the United States and Japan as the large navies most likely to shape a future Atlantic or Pacific conflict. Defending a global empire required forces that could move quickly between theatres and create pressure near an opponent's home waters. D'Eyncourt's fully armoured battlecruiser concept offered speed and strong protection while its larger internal spaces made long deployments more tolerable for the crew. The F2 and F3 studies carried that post-Fisher lineage forward at about 28 knots, while Nelson and Rodney illustrate why protection and gun power alone did not produce an ideal imperial cruising ship.
Notable Point · 55:19-59:24
Fully armoured battlecruisers for imperial strategic mobility
Potential wars across the Atlantic or Pacific favoured fast, habitable capital ships that could redeploy around the empire and threaten an opponent near home.