How a 15,000-ton cruiser reshapes Washington

How would the proposed 1919 Royal Navy heavy scout cruiser affect the Washington Naval Treaty?

The proposed outcome raises the cruiser limit to about 16,000 tons and increases capital-ship and carrier ceilings, with useful light carriers potentially falling below the exemption threshold.

A completed class of 15,000-ton British station cruisers is expected to influence the limits accepted at Washington. In this counterfactual, the cruiser ceiling rises to roughly 16,000 tons standard displacement. Hood supplies a possible capital-ship model around 42,000 tons, with 45,000 tons also suggested, while the carrier limit could rise to about 32,000 tons. The argument assumes that negotiators preserve a substantial displacement gap between ship categories. If the exemption for small carriers rises with the cruiser ceiling, useful carriers below 16,000 tons could also escape treaty restrictions. These are proposed consequences of the imagined fleet, rather than limits that follow automatically from the historical treaty.