Nine fast Queen Elizabeths and the Washington treaty

How would nine 28-knot Queen Elizabeth-type battleships change the Washington treaty settlement?

Britain would demand more aggregate tonnage to retain its 15-inch ships and build Nelson and Rodney, producing a stronger fast-battleship force that would influence later German designs.

Official standard displacements show that nine faster Queen Elizabeth-type ships would not fit the historical settlement unchanged. To retain them and still build Nelson and Rodney, Britain would press for either about sixteen 35,000-ton capital ships or fifteen ships at roughly 37,000 tons. Keeping Tiger would push the allowance higher again. That bargain leaves Britain with a much larger 15-inch fleet entering the Second World War, and modernization could turn several into 28-knot fast units. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would then need more speed or different design choices to preserve their operational edge. An altered starting fleet rewrites the treaty arithmetic and later rival programmes.