Britain reaching a 28-knot battleship ahead of the Francesco Caracciolo programme would frustrate Italian fast-battleship ambitions. In the imagined response, criticism falls on Italian funding and slow decisions. Britain has the advantage of an established production flow and a much larger volume of battleship construction. If rival powers paused while Britain continued building, Britain could recover part of the numerical advantage lost through the Dreadnought transition. Any wider delay in the outbreak of war could also benefit France and other powers, although that remains a separate speculative consequence.
Notable Point · 1:14:56-1:16:27
Italian fast-battleship ambitions and British throughput
British production volume could turn the design advantage into completed ships before rival programmes.