What postwar battleship thinking remained

What post-Second World War thinking remained about using battleships?

Their future depended on an opposing battleship threat; Soviet construction might have prolonged or renewed British programs, but carriers otherwise offered greater reach and flexibility.

Postwar battleship survival depended heavily on whether the Soviet Union fielded new ships. Continued Soviet construction could have prolonged British battleships and perhaps revived the Lion class as a prestige and counterforce program. Without a comparable enemy surface threat, carriers offered more adaptable reach and won the resource competition. The later Kirov and Iowa examples show how a conspicuous rival surface combatant could restore political value to an otherwise difficult ship type.