If British dreadnoughts through the Queen Elizabeth class used superfiring turrets, what other improvements might follow?
Short answerThey could gain a stronger broadside, cleaner internal layout, and slightly higher speed, but only if designers exploited the freed hull space deliberately.
NotesFore-and-aft superfiring arrangements could produce longer, narrower ships with a more efficient length-to-beam ratio. The suggested gain is roughly one knot for the same machinery, potentially turning a 21-knot fleet into a 22-knot fleet. A ten-gun British broadside would also challenge German hexagonal turret layouts that brought eight guns to bear. Removing wing turrets could improve the arrangement of boilers and fuel spaces, but those benefits would still require deliberate work on the rest of the design.