How America might answer a 44-ship British battle fleet

How would the United States respond to a Royal Navy with 44 heavily armed capital ships?

It would need either a large building programme or a treaty that reduced the British advantage while preserving an acceptable balance.

The proposed British force totals 31 battleships and 13 battlecruisers armed with guns of 14 inches or larger. The United States would probably expand in response, although perhaps not to the same number if Britain's fleet also reflected an earlier competition with Germany. A Washington-style treaty might preserve Britain's newer 16- and 18-inch ships while reducing older units. Without such an agreement, Congress would face pressure to authorize a major American construction programme.