Retaining rebuilt Tennessee-class cruisers is placed in a hypothetical treaty system allowing cruisers up to 15,000 tons. That relaxation would also let Britain, Japan and Italy build larger new cruisers, worsening the comparison with the old American hulls. A County-class design with twelve eight-inch guns in four triple turrets is one suggested consequence. Associated assumptions raise the capital-ship limit to 40,000 tons and the carrier allowance to roughly 32,000 or 33,000 tons per ship. A 165,000-ton aggregate allowance could instead accommodate six carriers of about 27,000 tons, a size the British and Americans are said to prefer. Germany is treated separately because its Versailles restrictions would remain, leaving a historically sized Deutschland class at a greater disadvantage against the enlarged cruisers.
Notable Point · 2:35:25-2:38:13
A larger treaty cruiser limit would help Tennessee's rivals
A 15,000-ton cruiser limit might preserve the Tennessees, but it would also permit stronger new rivals and leave Versailles-limited German ships behind.