Fleet exercises and written Royal Navy doctrine had already established that a fast carrier or hunting group should include a fast capital ship. The loss of HMS Glorious exposed the risk when that protection was absent. Britain began the war with only three suitable capital ships, and one was still being upgraded. A 28-knot Warspite would have been slower than the battlecruisers but fast enough to ease the shortage. Finding weight for the extra boilers could have required removing the remaining conning-tower armour and replacing some 6-inch and 4-inch weapons with six twin 4.5-inch dual-purpose mountings.
Notable Point · 6:28-9:08
How a 28-knot Warspite could reinforce carrier hunting groups
The faster-Warspite counterfactual shows why Royal Navy doctrine paired carriers with fast capital ships and how extra machinery would force protection and armament choices.