Best possible update of a pre-dreadnought?

It's really not. IIRC (and I'm going off memory here so I may be wrong) the American rebuilds of the Standards cost about the same as the cost to build a whole new ship. Maybe a little less, but I'm talking like, 5 rebuilds for the price for 4 new ships
I might be remembering wrong but i think the Italian rebuilds cost half as much compared to a new one.

In case of the Germans any cost can be rationalized because you're not allowed to buy a new one, though where a rebuild ends and a new ship starts is an open question.
 
bulge the hell out of them, spam armor and flak, tie a couple of barrage balloons to them, give them diesel engines and a ram bow (for harbor booms, of course), remove the torpedoes, replace the old 15cm guns with quicker firing ones, and do a frontal assault on an enemy port :)
 
There are upgrades for predreadnoughts that are extremely useful. The USN didn't strike the last one until 1955!
USS_Kearsarge_as_crane_ship_AB-1.jpg
 
Earlier development of ram-jets and then V-1s. Turn the PDs into arsenal ships, loaded with V-1s and launchers. This should be perfectly feasible, considering all I've read in this forum over the years. :)
 

Deleted member 94680

I might be remembering wrong but i think the Italian rebuilds cost half as much compared to a new one.

No, the Italian rebuilds cost about as much as a new Littorio each. They were just ready sooner (but delayed the Littorios from being completed)


As to the OP, what were the treaty restrictions on the ships for Germany? Anything breaking the treaty too early is a red flag to the WAllies and anything later than that is using up vital limited naval materiel and dockyard space that the Germans should have been using more wisely elsewhere.
 
Earlier development of ram-jets and then V-1s. Turn the PDs into arsenal ships, loaded with V-1s and launchers. This should be perfectly feasible, considering all I've read in this forum over the years. :)
It is viable, but the V1s are not because those things are so inaccurate you might end up bombarding the wrong country!
 
The real advantage of a rebuild is the fact that it doesn't use as many resources that are difficult to produce- turrets with higher elevation don't require more gun pits to make more guns, straking and re-arranging armour means you don't have to make as much plate. The latter was especially important for, say, The Soviet Union, which couldn't reliably produce Krupp cemented armour thicker than 9". New boilers, turbines, guns 6" and under, and such, are far less difficult to make.

Rebuilding costs similar (in construction costs) to a new ship, and takes about as much time, as rebuilding means you have to take the ship apart and put it back together again with all the new bits.
 

Deleted member 94680

It is viable, but the V1s are not because those things are so inaccurate you might end up bombarding the wrong country!

The gap between the development of the V-1 as an effective weapon and the pre-dread surviving in WWII probably precludes it more.

As for the accuracy, “wrong country” is exaggerating somewhat, but they probably wouldn’t be much use as a gunnery support alternative.
 
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