New construction follows a proven refit design

The surviving battleship design is revised into a steadier gun platform and receives additional weapons suited to defeating torpedo boats. A possible twelve-and-a-half-inch increase is rejected in favor of the twelve-inch main battery, with weight saved through changes to the secondary guns and fittings. Rather than introduce another unrelated class, the completed refit becomes a new-build design. The policy is highly conservative, but it preserves commonality and turns operational lessons into repeatable construction while the yards remain heavily oversubscribed. An understood platform takes priority over a larger paper improvement when money and construction capacity are already strained.