The January design used nine fourteen-inch guns in three triple turrets, while the June version used eight in four twins. Both retained 45,000 shaft horsepower and were credited with about twenty-three knots despite their different hull lengths, which makes the repeated speed figure questionable. Shorter, narrower, and shallower hulls saved roughly 5,800 tons against Nelson and Rodney in the closest comparison. The saving came with a twelve-inch main belt and fourteen-inch turret faces, leaving protection below both the Nelson class and the later King George V class. Because no arrangement drawings survive with the tables, the illustrated F3-style or Nelson-style layouts remain possibilities rather than established reconstructions. The studies are most useful as a minimum viable baseline whose economy would expose the ships to older heavy-gun opponents.
Chapter · 15:18-22:37
The 1927 designs search for a minimum viable battleship
Two 1927 studies paired fourteen-inch guns with compact hulls and reduced protection, creating cheaper ships that look like a dangerous baseline rather than convincing successors to Nelson and Rodney.