Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 3:03:32-3:04:29

An American Hood and the Washington treaty ceiling

A Washington treaty counterfactual shows how the ships already in service set the politically defensible ceiling for everyone else.

BattlecruisersCapital ShipsLexington Class BattlecruisersLive Q&ANaval DiplomacyRoyal NavyUS NavyWashington Naval Treaty
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Question

What if the United States also possessed a Hood-like capital ship when the Washington Naval Conference began?

Short answer

A large American ship would make the historical 35,000-ton ceiling harder to defend, pushing the agreement toward roughly 42,000 tons or making the negotiations fail altogether.

Notes

An American Hood or completed Lexington would be another existing ship that negotiators could not bargain away easily. If both Britain and the United States possessed capital ships above 40,000 tons, Japan would have a strong case for an equivalent design. The likely compromise becomes a standard displacement near 42,000 tons instead of the historical 35,000. If that higher baseline still failed to satisfy the parties, the accumulating exceptions could cause the treaty process to collapse.