County-class reserve for post-treaty growth

Should a treaty warship be built at the displacement limit or leave reserve buoyancy for later armor and guns?

Leave reserve when upgrades are expected after treaty constraints lapse; British County-class design reflects that expectation.

Whether to build right to a treaty ceiling depends on whether upgrades must remain treaty-compliant. A ship expected to remain inside the rules has different reserve requirements from one intended to receive armour, weapons, and sensors after the regime collapses. The County class is presented as evidence that British designers expected the treaty system eventually to fail and preserved room for later wartime additions. Unused displacement and buoyancy became planned modernisation capacity rather than simple underbuilding.