Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 43:13-43:44

The N3 battleship's extreme armour scheme

The proposed N3 is introduced as an exceptionally armour-heavy capital ship before its protection figures are detailed later.

BattleshipsG3 Class BattlecruisersN3 Class BattleshipsNaval ArmourRoyal NavyShip Speed
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Question

How thick was the planned armour on the N3 class?

Short answer

Extremely heavy: up to about 15 inches on the belt and barbettes, with six to eight inches of deck armour and heavily protected turrets.

Notes

The joking image of milling machinery spaces from a solid mass of armour captures how protection dominated the N3 concept. Its internal armour arrangement is described as broadly the G3 scheme made thicker. The planned belt ranged from roughly 13.5 to 15 inches, while deck protection ran from six to eight inches. Barbettes and the conning tower reached 15 inches, turrets varied from 10 to 18 inches, and bulkheads from nine to 14 inches. The design called for 23 knots, with a speculative margin that might have taken it to 25 or 26 knots. Combining that speed with so much protection makes the N3 a useful example of armour dominating both displacement and handling.