Q&A · 25:43-27:30

Modern fleets have outgrown interwar treaty categories

A modern treaty fleet would place Daring-sized combatants in the old cruiser band and struggle to fit capable carriers or destroyers within historical limits.

Question

What would a modern navy built to interwar cruiser, battleship, carrier, and destroyer limits look like?

Short answer

It could use enlarged Daring-type ships and small ASW escorts, but modern carriers and major combatants no longer fit comfortably into the old displacement bands.

Notes

The Daring class is the most plausible starting point for a ten-thousand-ton cruiser equivalent. A roughly two-thousand-ton destroyer could still serve as an anti-submarine escort, though the larger ships would have to provide much of the fleet's combat power. Carrier limits are the breaking point because modern aviation ships require far more displacement. Modern destroyers, cruisers, and carriers each sit roughly one interwar treaty category higher than their names suggest.