In the years following the Washington Naval Treaty, the 8-inch gun cruiser was by far the most favoured intermediate ship in the US Navy (USN). All that had to change when the London Naval Treaty restricted the construction of the 8-inch gun cruiser by numbers. If the USN wanted to build more cruisers in the future, the majority of them had to be light cruisers. The pursuit for a light cruiser that would rival the heavy cruiser began, leading to a series of design studies that proposed various solutions to implement effective protection and armament, some of which could be considered by many as unconventional or even outrageous. This would eventually result in the Brooklyn class that is well known today for its exceptional quantity of guns for a light cruiser.

Contrary to public belief, the 330 mm OPf Mle 1935 shell was not classified as a Semi-Armor Piercing type of ammunition. Historically, the Dunkerque class was designed to counter ships like the Graf Spee, which were lightly armored compared to other capital ships. One theory suggests that the 330 mm OPf shell was designed as SAP to fulfill this purpose. There are currently two claims that attempt to support the classification of the 330 mm OPf shell as SAP: the burster cavity was too large and the hardened cap was too thin compared to typical AP shells. However, additional historical and technical context disproves these claims and instead suggests that the 330 mm OPf shell was designed as AP. The historical context will be first established before addressing each of these claims.

From the spring of 1942, the General Board of the US Navy brought up a new fleet destroyer design for consideration. The design was expected to improve on the existing 2,200-ton Sumner class by raising the top speed from 36.5 to 38 knots with a moderate increase of 300 tons in displacement. This began a series of design studies that evaluated the potential characteristics of an improved Sumner/Gearing class. By the end of 1948, the design was drastically different from the destroyer envisioned 6 years before and formed the basis for the Mitscher class destroyer leaders.