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The next generation of British warships were to incorporate this lesson. After [[World War I]], the [[Admiralty]] drew up plans for massive, heavily armoured [[battlecruiser]]s and battleships, far larger and stronger than all previous vessels. The [[G3 battlecruiser|G<sub>3</sub> battlecruisers]] would carry {{convert|16|in|mm|0|adj=on}} guns, and the proposed [[N3 battleship|N<sub>3</sub> battleships]] would carry nine {{convert|18|in|mm|0|adj=on}} [[gun]]s, and would be the most powerful vessels afloat. The Royal Navy would hold its superiority in the burgeoning arms race, despite the large warships planned in [[Japan]] and the [[United States]].
However, development was abruptly halted when the arms race was brought to a halt by the signature of the [[Washington Naval Treaty]] in 1922. Four battlecruisers had been ordered but were not actually laid down and were cancelled (some of the material acquired would later be used in ''Nelson'' and ''Rodney''.) The Treaty limited all nations' battleships to 35,000 tons and 16-inch guns. The British had successfully ensured that the definition of maximum displacement - the "standard displacement" - excluded both fuel and boiler feed water. They had argued that policing the widespread [[British Empire]] meant their ships had to carry more of both and they should not be penalised against nations like
The limits of the treaty inevitably led to compromises in the design of two new ships and the resulting ''Nelsons'' class sacrificed installed power (thus speed) in order that they be well-armed and defended. Navy men would refer to them as the "[[George Washington#Personal information|Cherry Tree]] class", because it had been "cut down by Washington". The need to limit displacement therefore keep weights down resulted in a radical new warship design, drawing from the G<sub>3</sub> and N<sub>3</sub>s. In order to reduce the weight of armour, all the main gun turrets were mounted all forward, shortening the necessary armoured length. The G<sub>3</sub> and N<sub>3</sub>s had put the two turrets forward of and one behind the bridge, but in the ''Nelson''s, this was taken to extremes, and all three were in front of the bridge; 'B' was mounted superfiring to 'A' (i.e. above and behind), with 'Q' turret at the main deck level behind 'B', and therefore unable to fire directly forward or aft. The secondary guns were placed in weatherproof, director-controlled turrets at the main deck level (another innovation) and were grouped aft - another element borrowed from the G<sub>3</sub> and N<sub>3</sub> design.
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