![]() ![]() Six ships were planned: Iowa (BB.61), New Jersey (BB.62), Missouri (BB.63), Wisconsin (BB.64), Illinois (BB.65) and Kentucky (BB.66). USS Missouri (BB-61) is firinig her guns. Its construction was rushed forward, and fortunately the manufacturers were equal to the challenge, and enough guns were produced to enable the first two ships to be laid down in the summer of 1940 and completed in the first half of 1943. ![]() The outcome of a long process of design by the Department of Ordnance, the Mk VII was small enough to fit into the barbettes originally designed. The solution was to fit the new lightweight Mk VII 16-in/50-cal gun. Briefly, this meant that the 11.35 m (37 ft 3 in) diameter barbettes designed for the new ships were too small to accommodate the existing 16-in/50-cal Mk II, which had been built in 1916-18 for the cancelled South Dakota and Lexington classes. A ludicrous breakdown of communications between the Bureau of Ordnance and the Bureau of Construction and Repair meant that from April to November 1938 the two bureaus worked on different dimensions and weights for the new triple 16 in turret. ![]() The 16-in (406-mm)/50-cal armament selected for the new class had suffered many birth pangs. It was thought that the fast carrier’s aircraft would force enemy battleships to keep their distance, and that the fast battleships would prevent any cruisers from getting close. Although US naval intelligence suspected that the Japanese were about to adopt 18-in guns, it was hoped that US ships would never need protection against such heavy guns. To conceal the thinning of the armor down to 310 mm (12.2 in) it was put about for many years that the class had 460-mm (18-in) belts and massive deck armor, though the 1937 studies had shown that it would have been impossible to reconcile such heavy protection with 30 knots’ speed. ![]() However, the scale of the protection was adequate for a front- rank capital ship, and the Iowas compared well with all their contemporaries except the giant Japanese Yamato Class. Although never regarded as battlecruisers, the Iowa Class were just that, as they sacrificed armor for maximum speed while having the same weight of armament as the preceding Washington and South Dakota Classes of battleships. ![]()
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