A twelve-gun Hood reshapes bases and the Washington talks

How large would the Admiral class become with triple rather than twin turrets, and what would change?

Hood would become a roughly 45,000-ton twelve-gun ship whose support needs accelerate imperial dock upgrades and whose power makes the Washington settlement much harder to negotiate.

Replacing Hood's twin mountings with triples produces a twelve-gun ship with greater beam, length, and standard displacement. Britain could enlarge construction slips, but supporting the ship worldwide would require major dry-dock work at bases such as Malta, Alexandria, Ceylon, and Singapore. Those investments could ease the later construction of G3- or N3-sized capital ships and might make a second Admiral easier to complete with improved armor. At Washington, a 33-knot ship with twelve 15-inch guns would appear far more capable than a 21-knot Colorado, so Britain would resist any settlement that denied it new 16-inch battleships. A possible compromise would let the United States retain all four Colorados while Britain insisted on two new 16-inch battleships. Colorado would still have the advantage in a prolonged slugging match, but the enlarged Admiral's twelve-knot speed advantage would let it avoid that kind of engagement.