Is there any plausible way that the Royal Navy could get a pair of G3 battlecruisers instead of the two Nelson Class battleships they got in OTL as a result of the Washington Treaty?
They would have to re-write the WNT to allow ships to be bigger as well as making compromises with the USA and Japan allowing them to build bigger ships instead of the original 35k ton limit of the WNT.
If for example the big three were allowed to complete some larger vessels on the scale of the G3s the USN could get 2 of the South Dakotas, armed with 12 x 16 inch guns and the IJN could complete the two Tosa's as compensation. Financially the UK could probably afford the two G3s, and building them would save a lot of jobs.
One problem is that the G-3’s were at least 5,000 tons bigger then the South Dakota’s and Tosa so the British will probably have to cut down the size of the G-3 or give up something else.
The British already have the largest warship in the world, the Hood, the USA and Japan will not be happy having the British have the 3 largest warships in the world.
Okay how about this.
Give up the hood, cancel her, she's already basically obsolete because of her armour scheme and rebuilding her to the new All or Nothing is simply to darn expensive.
I know its heresy to suggest such a thing, but if we give up the Hood in return for building 2 x G3s, i'd take that.
Is it in fact true that the Hood was obsolete?
AFAIK her armour scheme was based on that of the Queen Elizabeths.
She was a fast battleship rather than a true battlecruiser.