Iowa-class battleship

Iowa class
Career
Class:	Iowa
Ordered:	Fiscal year 1940
Completed and commissioned:	Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin
Cancelled:	Illinois, Kentucky
General characteristics
Displacement:	45,000 tons
Length:	887 feet
Beam:	108 feet 2 inches
Draft:	28.8 ft (8.8 m)
Speed:	33+ knots
Main battery:	Nine 16"/50 guns in three triple turrets

The Iowa-class was the final series of six battleships constructed for the United States Navy, beginning with authorization in 1940, and ending with the commissioning of the fourth vessel, USS Wisconsin in 1944. The final two vessels were cancelled and scrapped while in the yards before launching, due to the ending of World War II, as well as the battleship's replacement as the apex warship by the aircraft carrier.

At 45,000 tons standard displacement, the six ships of the Iowa class were the U.S. Navy's first new World War II era battleships whose design was not encumbered by treaty limits. They were a new type for the Navy, the "fast battleship", intended to protect aircraft carriers against the threat of similar Japanese "big-gun" ships, as well as to form a "fast wing" for the traditional battle line. Though the even-larger Montana class were designed and ordered, four of the Iowas were the last battleships ever completed for U.S. Navy service. They were also arguably the Navy's most successful battleship design and certainly had the longest service lives.

Built under Fiscal Year 1940 (BB 61 & 62) and 1941 (BB 63-66) appropriations, the Iowa class were much longer, more powerfully engined and considerably faster than the preceding North Carolina and South Dakota classes. Their main battery, nine 16"/50 guns in triple turrets, was also somewhat more powerful than the 16"/45 armament of the two earlier types. The Iowas' internal armor protection scheme was similar in arrangement to that of the South Dakota class, and was designed to keep out the armor-piercing shells originally intended for their guns, though not the heavier (2700 pound) shells ultimately used.

The first two ships, Iowa (BB-61) and New Jersey (BB-62), were completed in the first part of 1943, and served through the rest of the Pacific war in the roles that had become normal for battleships by then: screening fast carrier task forces against air and surface threats, occasional shore bombardment, standing ready to haul into line of battle if the Japanese battle fleet should present itself, and providing flagships for tactical commanders. The second pair, Missouri (BB-63) and Wisconsin (BB-64), whose construction was somewhat delayed by other wartime priorities, came out to the Pacific during the war's last year. The conflict formally ended on Missouri's broad decks.

Construction of the last pair, Illinois (BB-65) and Kentucky (BB-66) stopped at or soon after the war's end, and three of the four completed ships were "mothballed" during the later 1940s. During the early 1950s, all four employed their sixteen-inch guns against enemy targets in the Korean War, but they were placed in reserve later in the decade. Thinking they were obsolete, the Navy played with various schemes to convert these fast, spacious and still relatively-new ships to more modern configurations, but nothing came of those ideas. New Jersey was briefly reactivated for Vietnam War bombardment duty, and the entire quartet was modernized and placed back in service during the 1980s' defense buildup. Though their active days were numbered, Missouri and Wisconsin provided heavy gunfire support for the 1991 war with Iraq, but soon rejoined their sisters in the reserve fleet. At present, all four are either serving as museums or probably soon will be, though Iowa and Wisconsin technically remain subject to a future call to seagoing duty.

The Iowa class consisted of six ships, four of which were completed. Construction of all was assigned to east coast Navy Yards.

• USS Iowa (BB-61), built at the New York Navy Yard. Keel laid in June 1940; launched in August 1942; commissioned in February 1943.
• USS New Jersey (BB-62), built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in September 1940; launched in December 1942; commissioned in May 1943.
• USS Missouri (BB-63), built at the New York Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1941; launched in January 1944; commissioned in June 1944.
• USS Wisconsin (BB-64), built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1941; launched in December 1943; commissioned in April 1944.
• Illinois (BB-65). Under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1945. Cancelled in August 1945 when 22% complete. Scrapped on the shipway in 1958.
• Kentucky (BB-66). Under construction at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia. Keel originally laid in March 1942; construction suspended in June 1942, resumed in December 1944 and suspended again in February 1947. Hull launched in January 1950 to clear the building dock. Sold for scrapping in 1958.

Iowa class design characteristics:

• Displacement: 45,000 tons (standard)
• Dimensions: 887' (length overall); 108' 2" (maximum beam)
• Powerplant: 212,000 horsepower steam turbines, producing a 33 knot maximum speed
• Armament (Main Battery): Nine 16"/50 guns in three triple turrets
• Armament (Secondary Battery): Twenty 5"/38 guns in ten twin mountings (ten guns on each side of the ship). During their configuation for service in the 1980's, four of these turrets would be replaced by Tomahawk cruise missiles in box cannisters. Supplemental defensive batteries consisted of four Phalanx close-in weapons systems.

Copyright Details
License:	This work is in the Public Domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
Source:	File available from the United States Federal Government [1].