Continuous construction changes more than the number of hulls available in 1939. British gun foundries might keep producing 16-inch weapons, or sustain development of the proposed 15-inch/50 for battlecruisers, rather than restart after a long gap. Four successive two-ship battleship classes would let each design incorporate machinery, protection, and layout experience from the class before it. Japan could follow a comparable one-ship-at-a-time rhythm, preserving its own learning curve while leaving other yards available for cruisers.
Notable Point · 1:34:40-1:39:22
How continuous orders accelerate guns and capital-ship design
Repeated two-ship and one-ship orders would turn the 1920s into a design sequence, preserving gun production and feeding lessons from each class into the next.