How an 18-inch Agincourt could reshape treaty limits

Would an 18-inch-gunned Agincourt have survived the naval treaties, and how might she have changed them?

Britain would likely keep her, and a successful 18-inch programme could raise treaty gun and tonnage limits or change the compensation Britain received.

The Royal Navy would probably retain a successful 18-inch Agincourt rather than sacrifice her immediately. Her existence could push the Admiral-class programme toward the same calibre and give Britain a group of ships already beyond the later 16-inch norm. That would alter negotiations over whether Britain still needed Nelson and Rodney as compensation for foreign 16-inch ships. The operational performance of such a ship at Jutland could make the larger calibre even harder for treaty negotiators to ignore.