Definitions that make a battleship depend on four turrets or another inherited visual feature would exclude Nelson, Rodney, and the Iowa class. The Nelson-class all-forward battery shows that gun arrangement can organize the hull without defining the category. The King George V class supports roughly 40,000 tons as a lower bound, while 60,000 tons is a plausible upper design point. Mission remains the decisive test. This opens space for a new ship that combines the offensive weight, survivability, and political significance of a battleship without reproducing a 1920 design.
Chapter · 10:27-16:04
Define a modern battleship by mission, not turret count
The design exercise begins with a 40,000-ton-plus capital ship whose identity comes from what it can do rather than a historical silhouette or fixed number of turrets.