The pre-dreadnought exercise leads into a speculative question about whether battleships could return in a railgun era. One possible layout places a few large railgun mountings fore and aft, supported by a separate battery of conventional medium-calibre weapons. That arrangement resembles a pre-dreadnought's division between main and secondary batteries more than a dreadnought's uniform heavy-gun principle. The comparison shows how weapon roles could shape a ship's layout even when the technologies are separated by a century.
Notable Point · 30:53-31:45
Why a future railgun ship might resemble a pre-dreadnought
A speculative railgun capital ship could revive the mixed-battery logic of a pre-dreadnought rather than the uniform heavy armament of a dreadnought.