U.S. cruisers as the scout force

Early U.S. cruisers were meant to find the enemy battle fleet in the Pacific and give the American battle line usable contact reports. Japanese planners expected large cruisers to serve as second-line battleships, while the Royal Navy needed general-purpose ships that could protect trade around the world. Britain entered treaty bargaining expecting Congress to underfund the American programme. U.S. planners, in turn, assumed the Royal Navy would keep patrolling trade routes that the United States did not need to cover. The division between battle fleet and scout fleet made speed, range, and escape more important than armour for an eight-inch-gun duel. Success meant delivering information to the battle line rather than winning an independent cruiser battle.