One alternative treats the ships as mass-produced super-destroyers operating alongside ordinary destroyers. That idea still founders on their four torpedo tubes, too few for a vessel giving up cruiser protection and claiming a destroyer identity. The actual concept assumed high-speed anti-destroyer work in a permissive environment where hostile light cruisers were absent or busy elsewhere. Cape Spada showed that even standard British H- and I-class destroyers were not the easy targets the theory required. Reducing speed from 37 knots to 35 or 36 knots and adding useful armor or torpedo defense would have produced a more balanced design.
Chapter · 1:14:18-1:17:16
Why the super-destroyer alternative still failed
Treating the Giussanos as mass-produced super-destroyers still leaves too few torpedoes, an unrealistically permissive operating concept, and speed purchased at excessive cost.