What does a cheaper Tiger Cub design reveal about battlecruiser cost and speed?
Short answerIt shows that machinery power density, not just armament, governs the viable balance of speed, protection, and cost in a fast capital ship.
NotesThe proposed Tiger Cub emerged from a SpringSharp exercise and was estimated at less than half the cost of HMS Tiger. The result challenges the assumption that gun caliber alone governs capital-ship size and expense. The decisive enabling technology is machinery power density: how much power a designer can obtain for each ton devoted to propulsion. As machinery improves, a ship can preserve speed while allocating more displacement to armor and subdivision. A smaller battlecruiser concept is therefore also a study in the technological balance among propulsion, protection, and cost.