British warships used the imperial base network to limit the fuel they needed to carry. Moving the main Far East base to Sydney would increase fuel stocks ashore and require longer ship endurance. The County class's quoted range falls from 8,000 nautical miles at 10 knots to 2,300 at 30 knots, so economical cruising range cannot stand in for rapid deployment. Fuel and feedwater are excluded from treaty standard displacement, but their tanks still take up hull volume that needs protection. A larger hull and its armour consume tonnage that could otherwise serve other purposes. The Suez-to-Singapore route was a recurring design benchmark, and replacing it with the much longer Sydney route would change those tradeoffs across the fleet.
Chapter · 49:01-53:43
A Sydney strategy redesigns the Royal Navy around range
County-class endurance and treaty tonnage limits show why adding enough range for Sydney would change hull size and protection.