In this counterfactual, the Royal Navy would probably revive the name HMS Birmingham almost immediately. A third Edinburgh-subclass cruiser is the proposed replacement because the design remained close enough to current construction and offered the full-sized ship the navy would want. Even an urgent order would take at least two years to enter service. The aside links memorial naming and wartime procurement to the industrial delay between deciding to replace a ship and receiving useful combat power.
Notable Point · 54:01-54:51
A replacement HMS Birmingham and the limits of emergency building
The imagined loss of Birmingham prompts a replacement cruiser, but construction time means commemoration would not create an immediate combat asset.