Completing USS Washington as the fourth Colorado would be a politically easy concession because its construction was already funded and few signatories would object. Together with the five Lexington battlecruisers, that choice initially gives the US Navy nine sixteen-inch-gun capital ships. Retiring Arkansas, Wyoming, Florida, and Utah could later release room for three modern battleships, raising the total to twelve. Britain would have fewer sixteen-inch ships but more fifteen-inch ships, so the headline tonnage ratio would still conceal different force compositions. Treaty equality can therefore produce dissimilar fleets once governments choose which existing hulls to finish or replace.
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USS Washington and the US sixteen-inch battle line
Completing Washington and replacing four older battleships could give the United States a twelve-ship, sixteen-inch-gun core while keeping treaty tonnage nominally balanced with Britain.