A known Yamato would probably provoke very large British and American responses in this counterfactual. Italy and Germany would then face pressure to enlarge their own new battleships and Plan Z projects. Navies that could not afford to cancel ships already under construction might keep adding requirements to existing designs. Each adaptation would bring more delay, complexity, and industrial strain. The likely result is an arms race in which weaker shipbuilding systems suffer most from trying to match the leading designs.
Notable Point · 1:17:38-1:19:20
How a known Yamato could distort rival building programmes
A delayed war and public knowledge of Yamato could push several navies toward larger ships that strained their existing programmes.