Churchill's minimum program and the four fast super-dreadnought choice

Why did the Royal Navy move from a possible three-battleship and one-battlecruiser program to four Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleships?

Churchill's memorandum set out a minimum opening position, while four fast super-dreadnoughts supplied both battle-line power and the speed that reduced the need for a more expensive battlecruiser.

Winston Churchill's memorandum to David Lloyd George was an opening position rather than the final shape of the program. Three repeat battleships and one battlecruiser represented the minimum case from which naval requirements and political bargaining proceeded. Four fast super-dreadnoughts could replace that mix because their speed reduced the distinct need for a costly battlecruiser while the 15-inch gun kept Britain ahead of German and American development. Royal Navy primacy carried its own strategic burden: a service whose security and prestige depended on being the leading navy could not casually allow another power to take the technological lead.