The Lexington design combined 33-knot speed with a range of 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots and eight 16-inch guns. Fourteen single 6-inch guns and eight 3-inch anti-aircraft guns created obvious room for a later dual-purpose secondary battery. The unbuilt ships are imagined surviving into World War II with substantial modernization, where speed and reach would let them answer distant threats across the Atlantic or Pacific. Their cruiser-end qualities suit fast response and economic warfare more than a confined line-of-battle role. The hypothetical is especially revealing because the hulls were useful enough to become successful aircraft carriers, leaving the battlecruiser's alternative operational career untested.
Chapter · 48:59-51:16
Lexington's machinery and range suit a Pacific battlecruiser
A 33-knot speed, 10,000-nautical-mile range, and eight 16-inch guns could have made the Lexington battlecruisers unusually effective fast-response ships in an Atlantic or Pacific war.