Fast scout cruisers and the counterforce they would provoke

The scout-cruiser concept offered 36-knot speed, long diesel endurance, six-inch guns, torpedoes, and a small crew for screening raiding groups. Its protection amounted to roughly an inch of belt and deck armor, leaving it vulnerable to British heavy destroyers and light cruisers. Sufficient German production would have encouraged Britain to answer with more Tribals, Battles, and Darings rather than concede the role. Only the first hull began construction, and the surviving account says an air raid destroyed the plans before work stopped. It is doubtful that a modern program literally depended on one usable set of drawings, so the story may conceal an excuse or extreme bureaucratic control of the design. Steel and machinery were then redirected to submarines and destroyers already further along. Poorly coordinated design control, records, construction capacity, and wartime priorities made the ambitious program fragile.