Italy lacks the resources to compete simultaneously in fleet numbers and individual ship quality, while its production infrastructure better suits the latter. Dante Alighieri's twelve 12-inch guns and 22-knot speed provide the starting point. A response to the proposed British Dreadnought might keep 12-inch guns but increase the battery to six triple turrets, producing an eighteen-gun broadside. Older Italian weapons of 17 inches and 16.25 inches would not supply a ready modern naval gun without substantial further development. Speed would help cover both coasts, with France on one side and Austria-Hungary in the Adriatic on the other. Italian design changes could also affect Russia's Gangut programme because Dante Alighieri is presented as its design basis.
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Italy responds with Mediterranean speed and firepower
Italy is likely to answer a British technological lead by pursuing high-quality, fast, heavily armed ships suited to its Mediterranean geography.