The 1921 G3 battlecruiser design combined nine 16-inch guns with a planned speed of 32 knots and 160,000 shaft horsepower. Its dimensions already had to fit canal passages and British docking facilities. A subsequent battleship proposal would have carried nine 18-inch guns at 23.5 knots on a slightly larger displacement. Washington Treaty negotiations halted the battlecruisers before construction began, and their contracts were cancelled in February 1922. Nelson and Rodney then had to meet fixed displacement and gun-calibre limits while incorporating wartime lessons. Their requirements combined speed, fuel economy, and range with heavy armament and protection against aerial bombs, plunging shells, mines, and torpedoes.
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Nelson and Rodney under Washington Treaty limits
The cancelled 1921 battlecruisers and a larger 18-inch-gun battleship provide the design background to Nelson and Rodney's treaty-constrained requirements.