British planning treated the County class as an Empire cruiser that several Dominion navies might operate. Because the treaty counted the Royal Navy and Dominion forces together, a 40-to-48-ship program could have established a very large cruiser allowance before the London Treaty. Once London capped cruiser tonnage, capacity left unbuilt under Washington became much harder to recover. Such a program could have distributed imperial presence and established a stronger bargaining baseline. The counterfactual depends on governments accepting the cost of orders that they historically avoided.
Notable Point · 19:27-21:27
An Empire cruiser baseline before the London Treaty
A large Dominion-backed County-class program could have established both imperial presence and a much stronger cruiser-tonnage baseline before London imposed limits.