What 41,000 tons buys a capital ship

The 35,000-ton limit looked generous to officers raised on earlier dreadnoughts, but Hood's 41,200 tons showed how far recent capital-ship practice had already moved. Applying the same thought experiment to the later King George V class shows that a larger ceiling could influence more than one interwar design generation. The additional 5,800 to 7,000 tons would chiefly remove compromises by allowing a wider armoured citadel, stronger barbettes and belt, and enough power and fuel for 28 knots. Later equipment such as radar could also fit within a more generous growth margin. A well-balanced nine-gun ship is presented as more plausible and efficient than a design chasing twelve guns.