Why the US Navy did not buy more eight-inch armored cruisers

Congress had no strategic reason to double an already capable armored-cruiser force, because the United States was pursuing prestige and design quality rather than preparing a numerical warship race with Britain or Germany.

Question

Why did the US Navy not acquire a much larger force of eight-inch armored cruisers?

Short answer

Congress saw no need to double the force, and the United States was competing for ship quality and prestige rather than building the balanced numbers required for war with Britain or Germany.

Notes

The panel says the US Navy would gladly have accepted more armored cruisers if Congress offered them, but the political case for roughly doubling the force was absent. Ten Pennsylvania- and Tennessee-class ships already formed a useful group, and the proposed expansion was not needed for the fleet's actual strategy. Prewar American construction was not a quantitative contest with the Royal Navy or Imperial German Navy. Instead, the United States participated in a qualitative race for national prestige and better individual ships while neglecting some of the cruiser and destroyer depth a genuine anti-British war plan would require. This distinction between competitive one-upmanship and threat-driven fleet totals also helps explain later anxiety around the Washington Naval Treaty.