Seven new German capital ships could give the Royal Navy an argument for emergency funding and faster construction. Carriers would be accelerated alongside battleships because British doctrine used aviation to search for surface raiders too powerful for ordinary cruisers to engage. The industrial proposal is to order turrets and other long-lead components immediately rather than waiting for their usual production phase. One estimate brings several King George V-class ships into service in early 1940 and the wider battleship and Illustrious programs forward during that year. A Vanguard could follow in 1941, with Lion-class orders also expanded and accelerated. These dates are speculative results of the imagined emergency program, with the assumed availability of funds central to the argument.
Notable Point · 1:05:27-1:15:10
How the German windfall could accelerate British shipbuilding
Emergency funds and earlier component orders could shorten British building schedules in the counterfactual, with carriers needed to find German raiders.