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Duncan class - Pre-Dreadnoughts
King Edward VII class - Pre-Dreadnoughts
H.M.S. Dreadnought - The ship that revolutionised battleship design, the first all-big-gun battleship.
Lord Nelson class - The Lord Nelson class carried the heaviest secondary armament of any Pre-Dreadnought, ten 9.2-inch guns.
Invincible class - Another new type of ship, the battle-cruiser. Fast like armoured cruisers, but armed in the same way as the new Dreadnought battleships.
Bellerophon class - Immediately following the Dreadnought's design, the Bellerophon class had a heavier anti-torpedo boat armament and a pair of tripod masts to aid spotting for the main armament.
St. Vincent class - Very similar to the Bellerophon class, the St. Vincent class increased the main armaments barrel length from 45 to 50 calibres.
Neptune/Colossus class - To counter the ten gun broadside of the American Delaware class, the Neptune class has the amidships turrets sited en echelon, although this gave only limited arcs of fire.
Indefatigable class - Improved versions of the Invincible class battle-cruisers.
Orion class - Main armament was increased to ten 13.5-inch guns, this time all mounted on the centre-line to give all guns good arcs of fire on both sides.
Lion class - The battle-cruiser equivalents of the Orion class battleships.
King George V class - Similar to the Orion class, the King George V class had slightly improved protection and the main armament fired a heavier shell.
Iron Duke class - Secondary armament was increased to 6-inch guns to counter the increasing size of foreign destroyers. For the first time permanent anti-aircraft guns were carried.
H.M.S. Agincourt - Built for Brazil, she was purchased by the Ottoman Empire and was then taken over by the Royal Navy. H.M.S. Erin - Built for the Ottoman Empire but taken over by the Royal Navy. H.M.S. Tiger - To have been the fourth unit of the Lion class, Tiger was reworked to incorporate the lessons learned from of building Japan's Kongo. H.M.S. Canada (Chile's Almirante Latorre) - Built for Chile, but serving with the Royal Navy during World War I before being delivered.
Queen Elizabeth class - The first battleships armed with 15-inch guns and powered with exclusively oil-fired machinery, the Queen Elizabeth class was fast without the poor armour of battle-cruisers.
Revenge class - Because of concerns over guaranteed oil supply the "R" class was not built with all oil-fired boilers and so was slower than the Queen Elizabeth class. They spent much of World War II escorting convoys where this was not a handicap.
Renown class - Battle-cruisers ordered after the 1914 victory at the Falklands and built with materials assembled for additional Revenge class battleships, their designs were re-worked to add additional armour after the battle-cruiser experience at the battle of Jutland.
Courageous class - Built specifically for Admiral Fisher's Baltic plan, these unusual ships became known as the 'Outrageous', 'Curious' and 'Spurious'. All three were later converted to aircraft carriers.
H.M.S. Hood - The first British capital ship with a clipper bow and the largest warship in the world when she was commissioned. The battle-cruiser's planned modernisation had not been undertaken before the outbreak of World War II and she was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck.
Nelson class - The only Royal Navy battleships to mount 16-inch guns and also the only ones to mount triple turrets. However, built to Washington Treaty limitations the trade-off was a poor speed for it's day.
King George V class - Also built within the limitations of treaty agreements, the King George V class mounted ten 14-inch guns, with eight of them in two quadruple turrets.
H.M.S. Vanguard - The last Dreadnought battleship ever built, H.M.S. Vanguard was a well balanced design, but for a type naval of warfare that no longer existed.
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Battleships of the United Kingdom