High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasized speed without — in concept — undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early WWI-era dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, so the term "fast battleship" is applied to a design which was considerably faster. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required so as to equip the vessel for additional roles besides taking part in the line of battle, such as escorting aircraft carriers.