Fourteen-inch battleship gun doctrine

If a major sales campaign made 14-inch guns dominant, which navies would follow that doctrine and could it last into the 1950s?

Japan, Britain, and the United States already had 14-inch experience, but an enduring common standard is judged highly unlikely. Rate-of-fire tradeoffs and armour able to resist the shells would encourage larger guns.

Japan, Britain, and the United States had experience with 14-inch guns, but an enduring worldwide standard is judged highly unlikely. The explanation groups roughly 7.5- to 9.2-inch guns in one rate-of-fire band, roughly 9.2 or 9.5 to 13.5 inches in another, and 14 to about 16.5 inches in the next. In that account, 14 inches sits at the bottom of a slower-firing band and gains less shell power than larger weapons with comparable firing rates. Another participant tentatively recalls the King George V class as protected against 16-inch shells and well protected against its own 14-inch guns. Opponents could also build protection effective against the standard calibre. Both arguments give navies a reason to increase calibre instead of holding to the standard into the 1950s. These are the broad comparisons used in the answer, rather than firing-rate specifications for every gun in those ranges.