Modernizing the Nelson class meant choosing priorities

Could the Royal Navy have modernized the Nelson class to reach King George V-class speeds before the Second World War?

Re-engining could have raised their speed, but the Royal Navy would have had to trade the machinery savings among speed, armor, weapons, and fire-control improvements.

Small-tube boilers could produce more power from less machinery space, making a faster Nelson technically possible. The same saved weight and volume could instead support armor, new weapons, or fire-control systems, so modernization was a choice among competing capabilities. The Royal Navy preferred balanced ships partly because a future opponent could be American, Japanese, German, or Italian.