Q&A · 3:00:28-3:01:44

How would later battleships fit a higher treaty baseline?

A question about later capital ships tests how an enlarged treaty ceiling would interact with national dockyards and industrial capacity.

Question

What would Littorio, Bismarck, and Yamato look like in a world with much larger treaty battleships?

Short answer

Italy and France could build to the higher treaty standard, but Germany's industrial ceiling might still yield a Bismarck much like the historical ship and badly outmatched; Japan's response is too uncertain to define.

Notes

The enlarged treaty baseline would shape national programmes unevenly. Littorio and French Dunkerque-type ships would likely be built to some version of the higher legal ceiling because Italy and France participated in the treaty system. Germany still faced Versailles restrictions and the postwar collapse of its maritime industry. Bismarck and Tirpitz were near the sustainable limit of its restored shipbuilding base, and similar ships would be badly outmatched in a world of 16.5- or 18-inch-gun battleships. Japan might respond with a different Yamato-scale programme, but the details are too uncertain to specify. Treaty permission cannot erase infrastructure and economic limits.