Queen Mary was ordered while the Royal Navy was asking which fast capital ship best matched Britain's global commitments. A large empire needed very good ships at a price that allowed enough units to cover scattered bases and missions. As battlecruisers grew more expensive, Britain could not build enough of them to perform every large-cruiser task. The navy still relied on generations of armoured cruisers but increasingly needed an intermediary between light cruisers and costly battlecruisers. Proposed 9.2-inch-gun "Tiger cub" cruisers illustrate how procurement scale shaped the choice of ship type.
Notable Point · 10:04-12:54
The imperial fleet's cruiser gap
Battlecruisers were becoming too costly to cover every imperial cruiser mission, forcing the Royal Navy to consider an intermediate type between light cruisers and capital ships.