An active capital-ship building program would be easier to expand than an industry restarted after a prolonged gap. Restarting from cold brings additional costs and practical difficulties that continuous work could avoid. Germany's renewed naval construction would then face a Royal Navy with modernized older ships and a larger group of new fast capital ships. In one continuation of the proposed building allowances, as many as eight ships built during the 1930s could be in service by 1939. Counting Hood and the two Nelsons, eleven of a fifteen-ship force would have been launched since the First World War. Those totals depend on later treaty arrangements and building decisions, as does the choice between retaining 15-inch guns and moving to 16-inch weapons.
Notable Point · 1:27:57-1:29:45
Continuous construction could leave Germany facing a younger Royal Navy
Successive building batches could preserve British yard capacity and make German rearmament confront a much more modern capital-ship force.