The Zealandian Navy decided to rectify the mistake it made with the Harad class in not providing enough speed to give the Harad type a chance to be offensive minelayers. The original design showed a standard cruiser with a maximum speed of 33 knots, 4" armoured belt, 9x6" 8x4" guns, aircraft, and torpedoes. Perfect if Zealandia was looking for a standard light cruiser. The designers took out their scalpels and went to work. The 6" and 4" were ditched and replaced with a dual purpose armament of ten 4.5" in five twin turrets. The aircraft and torpedoes were retained as when the ships were not operating in their primary role they still needed to work at normal cruiser duties. Armour was reduced to 3" box lots around the magazines and propulsion units. Everything was lightened and subordinated to speed.
The reduction from the 6"/4" armament to the 4.5" DP guns also saved in the number of gun directors. Four or five was reduced to two. It does not sound much but the directors are all mounted as high as possible for best vision, so their weight is also coupled to the amount of topweight they represent.
