Admiral Jellicoe's preferred small-tube boilers could have pushed the Queen Elizabeth class from roughly 25 to around 28 knots. Britain nevertheless accepted the 15-inch/42 gun because fielding the first 15-inch weapon carried competitive value, even if a longer gun might have been preferable. The qualitative race involved the United States, Italy, and Japan, while the contest with Germany was quantitative. German battleship costs mattered because the army's demands would ultimately outrank naval spending in a continental state. The earlier Orion class shows that introducing a larger gun calibre did not by itself make a design the new benchmark.
Notable Point · 21:07-23:21
Why the Queen Elizabeths stopped short of the benchmark
Jellicoe's preferred boilers, the rush to field 15-inch guns, and Germany's army-first politics show how technical ambition and opponent costs shaped Britain's benchmark bid.