Wartime construction speed and the triple-turret alternative

Fisher wanted the ships delivered within 15 months, and their actual progress still reflected extraordinary wartime urgency: laid down in January 1915, launched in March 1916, and commissioned that September. Completion just a few months earlier might have placed them in Beatty's force at Jutland, where their 15-inch guns and fire control could have altered individual engagements. Problems with British shells limit any larger claim, although the impact of a 15-inch shell could cause serious damage even when it failed to explode properly. Designers considered triple turrets, but reusing twin mountings procured for the R class reduced cost and delivery risk. A nine-gun design might have strengthened the case for modernizing Repulse rather than spending on an R-class battleship and could also have influenced the path to Hood. These remain counterfactual possibilities rather than claims about what would certainly have happened.