Big Gun Ships With Late/No World War II

Delta Force

Banned
Historically navies tended to keep ships in service for decades of service, even if badly obsolete, but battleships and gun cruisers were retired in massive numbers immediately after World War II. This was also seen with pre-dreadnoughts and regular dreadnoughts following the experience at Jutland. Battleships continued to be built leading up to and even during World War II even as aircraft were proving themselves as a powerful naval weapon. Since battleships kept being built even as they were showing their vulnerability in real world conditions, how long will big gun battleships and heavy cruisers continue to be built and serve in a late/no World War II scenario? Also, how will this missed war experience impact the development of the aircraft carrier and battleship?
 
Even before World War II, the United States, Japan, Great Britain, and Germany were all planning fairly extensive updates to their existing battle fleets. Those would probably go forward even without the pressure of a shooting war, although they might move at a slower pace. In order to save money and manpower, older ships would be more likely to be retired in peacetime, particularly if their armament was considerably weaker than the new generation of ships.

From a technology standpoint, battleships would probably look pretty similar to OTL in terms of gun caliber, battery size, speed, and armor protection...all of that was being driven by evolutionary change, and lessons from World War I, so things would probably continue on broadly similar paths. The one notable exception to this would be the thickets of anti-aircraft guns that, in this timeline, would be absent until much later.

Aircraft carriers were already under development, and would probably continue to evolve even without the war. It's worth noting that all of the 'big name' carriers in the Pacific battles were built in the 1930s, and so would already exist. As with battleships, the evolution might be slower without a war (and the building rates assuredly would be) but probably not by as much as you'd think.

So, overall, my bet is smaller fleets, but pretty similar lines and tempo of technical progress right up until the war kicks off, at which point, there will be (just as in OTL), the fastest buildup that respective nations can pull off.
 

sharlin

Banned
Personally i'd say larger fleets, without WWII the RN could keep its expansion in mind, laying down the Lion class as well as continuing to replace older destroyers with new ones. The Cruisers would also continue production as well as possibly seeing the introduction of the Surry class of 8 inch gunned heavy cruisers.

The USN would expand as part of the already planned expansion to its fleet that got the Japanese so worried whilst the IJN could continue working on the third Yamato class as well as possible replacements for their older ships as well as newer carriers but the Japanese would be limited by their industrial capacity. The French could produce the Gascoine and her sisters whilst the Italians could continue work on the Littorio class.
 
The Vanguard was of the that class?

No The Vanguard was a 'One off' It was Basically a King George V design modified to use some already existing 15" twin turrets that were available.

The Lion was a followon to the KGV with 3 16" triple turrets in place of the 3 14" turrets (2 quad an one twin, originally meant to be 3 quad turrets)
 
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