This was originally intended to be the main armament of the cancelled battleships and battlecruisers of 1922. Another feature of the design was to be the Mark 2 16 inch(406 mm) / 50 caliber gun.
A study indicated that a 45,000 ton Extended-South Dakota would be capable of 33 knots. The design process began in early 1938 on the basis of creating an extended South Dakota class. The Iowa-class began in response to the need for fast escorts for aircraft carriers. Lastly, all four ships still exist: this is unusual because the US Navy typically scraps older, decommissioned ships or sinks them in weapons tests. Fourth, these ships were active, albeit intermittently, throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Lehman's " 600-ship Navy" plan, particularly in response to the Soviet Navy commissioning the Kirov class battlecruisers/missile cruisers. Third, all four of the Iowa class battleships were recommissioned and refitted under the Reagan Administration as part of Navy Secretary John F. Second, although they had to be designed to fit through the Panama Canal, they took that to the limit, as described above. First, they were designed as "fast" battleships, able to rely on an even mix of speed and firepower, and capable of sailing at the same speed as the carrier force. The Iowas were unique in several respects. The follow-on Montana class battleships, had they been completed, would have been built to a post- Panamax design, having a beam 12 feet wider than the Iowas. The ships are actually two feet wider than what is accepted in the present day as a Panamax configuration, only allowing a single foot of clearance either side of the hull. This made them difficult to armor, especially forward, near the #1 turret. By battleship standards they were slender for their length, in order to be able to pass through the Panama Canal. Like all American battleships of their generation, their armament was laid out in two turrets before the superstructure and one after ("2-A-1"), with the 5 inch dual-purpose secondaries (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) flanking the superstructure. While excellent sea boats, the ships are quite wet forward owing to the long bow. The Iowas are widely considered to be amongst the most attractive battleships ever built, with a long, narrow, elegant bow and three powerful gun turrets. The Iowa-class battleships improved upon the earlier South Dakota class with more powerful engines, longer-caliber guns giving greater range, and an additional 200 feet (60 m) of length for improved seakeeping. The four were decommissioned, then recommissioned in the 1980s, and decommissioned again in the 1990s.īuilt with cost as no object "The Iowa-class fast battleships were arguably the ultimate capital ship in the evolution of the battleship." Yet even as these behemoths entered service they were being eclipsed by aircraft carriers as the most important naval vessels. Four were built in the early 1940s for World War II two more were laid down but were scrapped prior to completion. The Iowa-class battleships were the biggest, the most powerful, and the last battleships built for the United States Navy.
USS Wisconsin, the fourth ship of the class, in her Cold War configuration. Related subjects: Military History and War Iowa-class battleship