Alternate Nelson and Rodney

In designing a replacement for the Washington cancelled G3, design F3 was considered. It was not chosen because the RN had to have 16" gun battleships to match the USN & IJN. WI I don't have to match you in one way prevailed. The RN would get 2 new 28 knot battleships carrying 3x3 15" guns. This would leave the RN with a core fleet of 14 battleships (5 Revenge, 5 Queen Elizabeth and 4 Iron Duke) and a faster 28 knot screening force of 6 battleships/battlecruisers (2 F3, 1 Hood, 2 Renown and 1 Tiger).
 
28 knots might be pushing it in the 1920s, but still, pretty good ships.
The F3 was a battlecruiser design not a battleship.

Take HMS Hood and cut her length down by 140 meters, go for 3x3 15 inch guns instead of 2x4, keep the belt armour the same but increase the deck armour somewhat.

Nelson class was more heavily armoured than the f3 design.

I have to say that a F3 design would have been much more useful in ww2 than the Nelson class.

So much about ww2 at sea was about the ability to force a battle.

There was a time in ww2 where the Royal Navy only had a 4 to 3 advantage in fast capital ships. Sure S & G were bottled up in port wounded but it just goes to show how slim the fast ship advantage was.
 
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