Tillman battleships and the qualitative naval race

Were the Tillman battleships intended to halt American battleship production?

They represented a possible technological summit after which the qualitative race could end and resources could shift elsewhere.

The United States was not simply trying to outbuild Britain ship for ship. The Anglo-American competition is described as qualitative, unlike the earlier Anglo-German race for numerical strength. A Tillman design at the practical summit of battleship construction could claim the most capable individual ship. Once that summit was reached, resources could shift toward cruisers and other needs without conceding the prestige contest. Clarke also rejects the claim that Dreadnought began the Anglo-German race, dating the competition to the late 1880s and citing British construction legislation in 1889. Dreadnought begins a phase within that competition in this account.