Scaling the Queen Elizabeth class for 18-inch guns

How would history change if the Queen Elizabeth class had been built with 18-inch guns?

The ships would become roughly 40,000-ton, potentially 28-knot battleships and trigger a far more severe international gun-caliber race.

A Queen Elizabeth design enlarged proportionally for 18-inch guns is estimated at roughly 40,000 tons, with about 15 inches of armour. The longer guns would require a substantial increase in hull length, while beam would grow less. Extra boiler space and a higher length-to-beam ratio might allow about 28 knots. These are conditional estimates for the enlarged design. Such ships would force other navies to reconsider the protection of existing battleships and the expense of their next gun-calibre increase. Extending the same approach to the succeeding British capital ships would widen that pressure.