Where the US Navy stood in cruiser power during the 1920s

Where was the US Navy in cruiser size and capability during the 1920s compared with the British Empire?

The United States had light cruisers but treated the Lexington-class battlecruisers as its answer to the heavy-cruiser problem, much as the Invincibles had extended the cruiser role at the start of the century.

The panel does not equate Lexington with a treaty heavy cruiser; it emphasizes the two-word category battle cruiser. In operational terms, however, the class served as the American answer to the need for an exceptionally powerful cruiser-type force, paralleling how the Invincibles had expanded British cruiser capability. Design lineage and mission can therefore matter more than later labels.