German H-class concepts grew from 16-inch guns through 16.5-, 18.9-, and 20-inch proposals between H-39 and H-44. That sequence illustrates how chasing the next nominal improvement could replace an achievable production run with ever larger paper ships. The common-hull alternative instead selects the 15-inch weapon Germany actually built and fits it to a repeatable Scharnhorst-derived platform. This constraint keeps the counterfactual close enough to historical technology to illuminate why the real procurement system struggled.
Notable Point · 19:24-20:34
H-class escalation versus repeat construction
The growth from H-39 to H-44 illustrates the paper-design escalation that the common-hull policy is intended to stop.