A new five-ship program would keep yards and suppliers active while the Royal Navy modernized its surviving First World War capital ships. The proposal runs the R class hard as near-term cover while rebuilding the Queen Elizabeths with new boilers, turbines, and shafts. Reaching 28 knots might require forced draught, but their four-shaft arrangement makes a major increase more plausible. Combined with Hood, Renown, Repulse, the F3 pair, and five new ships, the reconstructions would turn British battle-line speed from a specialist advantage into a fleet-wide operating standard.
Notable Point · 2:13:09-2:14:31
Queen Elizabeth rebuilds complete a 28-knot battle line
Concurrent new construction could make deep Queen Elizabeth-class machinery rebuilds cheaper and leave Britain with an almost uniformly fast capital fleet.