One unproven hypothesis gives the sixth Queen Elizabeth-class battleship 18-inch guns. In the resulting counterfactual, the Admiral class follows as 18-inch-gun fast battleships and completes without delay. Britain then reaches the Washington negotiations with at least five ships carrying that calibre. A treaty retaining the historical 16-inch limit would therefore face different bargaining conditions. The example depends on the initial design hypothesis, which remains open to correction.
Notable Point · 14:24-16:17
British 18-inch battleships would change Washington's bargaining
A tentative 18-inch-gun interpretation of the sixth Queen Elizabeth leads to a counterfactual in which Britain's completed battleships change the Washington treaty negotiations.