The Hood Class battlecruisers were a design of battlecruiser planned for the British Royal Navy during the Naval Race after the 1913 War. The Hood's were the fastest and more heavily armed battlecruisers in the world at the time of their design and were designed as complements to the St. Andrews Class battleships.

Their construction began in August 1921 and were completed by 1925. Their arrival showed the United States that the naval rivalry was getting out of hand, being considered as one of the reasons the Naval Treaty of New York was agreed by all major powers.

The Hood's design took several novel ideas.

*concentration of the main battery forward of the funnels. This has been attributed to the idea that since British ships never ran away from a battle, they did not need to fire astern and could concentrate all guns on the enemy without turning side on. Actually to achieve the desired scale of armour protection it was necessary to reduce the length of the armoured part of the ship to a minimum. This led to the concentration of the turrets and associated magazines and hence the limited firing arcs.

*complete armour protection for all important areas and none for the rest - described as 'the all or nothing system'.

*a tower bridge structure, which was designed to reduce draughts and be made secure against gas attack. The tower bridge was sited behind the first two gun turrets and in front of the third which consequently suffered from restricted firing arcs.

*dual purpose secondary armament - with the ability to fire at surface targets and to provide 'barrage fire' againsts aircraft.

*a dedicated anti-aircraft battery with directed fire. Ships had anti-aircraft guns fitted before but were ineffective as the aiming was not controlled.

*a properly designed and 'tested' anti-torpedo protection system.

The Hood's were the pride of the British Battlecruiser units since their commission in 1925, being used as a “fire-brigade” during the Global War and with all units surviving the war. The served from the South Atlantic to the Coral Sea, being well respected by their enemies while the accomodations were very well liked by the crews that served on them.

All ships received upgrades in the late 1950's and continued service for another thirty years until finally being put to fleet reserve in 1989.

HMS Hood

HMS Rodney

HMS Hanson

HMS Howe

Displacement: 36,000 tons Length: 862.6 feet Beam: 106 feet Draft: 32.6 feet Speed: 32 knots Armament: nine 16-inch(3×3), 16 six-inch, six AA 4.7-inch, four 40mm AA guns.