Keeping big guns alive requires more than engineering

The counterfactual assumes that at least one navy keeps commissioning large-gun ships while adding missiles, so both weapon technology and its supporting industry continue to mature. A different Soviet path carries Stalin-era ambitions into later Kirov-like ships fitted with missiles and large guns. Missiles weaken the strictly military case for such weapons, but political prestige and rivalry could sustain them anyway. Continued Russian development could then influence Chinese naval policy and encourage opposing navies to respond.