Historical Yamato and Musashi would no longer dominate a world containing many fast British 16-inch ships and American battleships mounting twelve such guns. Japan might answer with twelve 18-inch guns or another larger design, but combining greater speed and firepower would strain an industrial base already heavily taxed by the historical Yamato program. Italy gains modern fast battleships and the national prestige that accompanies them, potentially changing both later Littorio designs and domestic politics. Germany, still constrained in the 1920s, confronts an even stronger opposition fleet and little prospect of restoring parity. Britain also has incentives to continue both 15-inch and 16-inch gun development, so the higher treaty baseline compounds across later generations.
Chapter · 1:26:09-1:32:07
A higher Allied baseline pressures Yamato and the Axis
More numerous Allied fast battleships and twelve-gun American designs force Japan toward a still larger, costlier answer than Yamato and worsen Germany's naval imbalance.