Additional tonnage could make battleships and aircraft carriers more secure and better able to escort themselves. Naval treaties deliberately restricted that possibility because reducing fleet capability was meant to make war harder to contemplate. The conclusion is skeptical because states determined to fight can work around qualitative restrictions. Arms-control ceilings therefore conflict with the naval architect's desire for protection, endurance, and self-defense.
Notable Point · 2:07:20-2:07:53
Treaty limits and self-escorting capital ships
A treaty-design aside argues that extra displacement could produce better-protected, more self-sufficient capital ships, while arms control deliberately restricted that possibility.