Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 3:04:38-3:05:38

Could the United States Navy build the H-44 battleship?

American industry could construct an H-44-scale ship, but the Navy had its own Montana and large-gun work and no reason to adopt the German design.

20-inch GunsBattleshipsH-44 Battleship DesignMontana Class BattleshipsUS NavyWarship Design
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Question

Could the United States Navy have built the German H-44 battleship design?

Short answer

Yes in industrial terms, but it had no operational reason to copy H-44 instead of pursuing its own Montana and large-caliber projects.

Notes

The panel sees no fundamental industrial barrier preventing the United States from building a ship on the H-44 scale. The more important question is why the Navy would want a German design when it already had Montana-class work and its own very large gun studies. H-44's roughly 100,000-ton scale and eight 20-inch guns represent the most extreme end of the German design sequence. Its committee-driven complexity makes it less attractive than developing an American capital ship around domestic requirements.