Lepanto

The project for a battleship with a displacement of 42,000 tons was prepared by Italian engineers under an order from the U.S.S.R. The ship should have been equipped with nine 406 mm guns in three turrets. If such a ship had been built in Italy, she would have been ready by 1940 or 1941. Since the 406 mm gun was not developed in Italy, an increase in firepower would only be possible by increasing the number of guns per turret. Quadruple turrets with 381 mm guns were developed for battleship projects in the late 1910s and early 1920s.