The Neptune class was a proposed class of cruisers planned for the British Royal Navy in the latter years of the Second World War. They were large ships which were to be armed with twelve dual-purpose guns and with a heavy secondary armament. Although five ships of the class were planned in 1944, they were cancelled following the end of the war, before construction could begin. Development and design In 1942, work began at the British Admiralty as to the requirements for the next class of cruisers to be built for the Royal Navy as a follow-on to the which were based on the pre-war . A small anti-aircraft (AA) cruiser design with six or eight dual-purpose guns (i.e. capable of both anti-ship and anti-aircraft fire) developed into the July 1943, design N2, armed with four twin 5.25-inch turrets of a new design and displacing standard, was approved for inclusion in the 1944 construction programme. In October 1943, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Dudley Pound, resigned and his replacement, Andrew Cunningham disliked the small cruiser and work was switched to a large cruiser, described at first as an "improved ", armed with twelve 6-inch guns. Hull and machinery The new design was long overall and at the waterline, with a beam of and a draught of , with the ships' hull form based on that of the ("large light cruiser") of the First World War. Displacement was standard and deep load. The ships were not fitted with facilities for carrying aircraft, so the bridge was lower than in preceding classes of cruiser, while the two superstructure blocks were longer than in previous ships; the forward superstructure extending back to the forward funnel and the aft superstructure covered the base of the aft funnel. A long forecastle was planned, reaching back beyond the aft funnel, although in 1946, it was suggested to change to a flush-deck hull. One of the problems identified with the small 5.25-inch-armed cruiser was that its speed ( in deep load condition) was inadequate to keep up with the aircraft carriers that the cruisers were meant to escort. The new design therefore had a much higher design speed. Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers fed steam at to Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines rated at and driving four propeller shafts. This gave a design speed of ; at full load. The machinery was to be laid out in