The proposed Neptunes were expected to represent the Royal Navy for perhaps twenty years and might have fought in another world war. A larger hull gave designers more scope to remove obsolete systems, add replacements, and adapt the ship as requirements changed. The same size made completion during wartime less likely because the programme competed with aircraft carriers and other major construction for yard space. Britain was already running a large light-fleet-carrier programme. The Neptunes were paused in 1946, and the smaller Tiger class continued the Crown Colony line instead.
Notable Point · 16:19-19:11
Flexibility versus wartime building capacity
A large cruiser could absorb future changes, but its size also made it difficult to complete while competing with carrier programmes for scarce yard capacity.