D'Eyncourt could not impose every innovative armour or machinery idea because admirals had to protect the fleet and empire against design failure. The Navy therefore tended to limit successive dreadnought classes to three major changes. A failed leap could leave the service with an ineffective ship that politics and cost would keep in service for decades. The Queen Elizabeth class illustrates the result: its hull could support greater speed, but conservative boiler choices prevented it from becoming the 28-knot fast battleship some planners envisaged.
Chapter · 27:36-30:39
Incremental warship design as risk control
Royal Navy designers limited major changes between classes so technological ambition would not produce an unusable capital ship.