The United States was allowed 150,000 tons of such ships, (Britain 150,000, Japan 100,450), of which “not more than sixteen percent . . . shall be employed in vessels of over 1,500 tons (1,524 metric tons) standard displacement: thus 13 (give or take fifty tons) 1,850-tonners.
A debate arose within the US Navy regarding what, if any, types of ship should be built on this displacement. In World War I, divisions of both British and German torpedo-boat destroyers had been led into battle by light cruisers or more heavily armed flotilla leaders, but the US Navy had not developed such ships that could play such a role.