Iowa Class Battleship

Iowa Class Battleship

The Iowa-class battleships were a class of fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940 to escort the Fast Carrier Task Forces that would operate in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Six were ordered during the course of World War II, but only four were completed in time to see service in the Pacific Theater. The last two had been laid down, but as a result of the postwar draw down of the armed forces they were canceled prior to completion and eventually scrapped. Like other third-generation American battleships, the Iowa class followed the design pattern set forth in the preceding North Carolina- and South Dakota-class battleships, which placed great emphasis on speed as well as on the secondary and anti-aircraft batteries. The Iowa class ships were also the longest examples of their type ever built, although other battleships were built with wider beams and higher displacements.

Between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s the Iowa-class battleships were involved in four major wars fought by the United States. In World War II, they defended aircraft carriers and shelled Japanese positions. During the Korean War, the battleships provided seaborne artillery support for United Nations forces fighting against North Korea, and in 1968 New Jersey shelled Viet Cong and Vietnam People's Army military forces in the Vietnam War. All four were reactivated and armed with missiles during the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy initiative; in 1991 Missouri and Wisconsin fired missiles and 16-inch (406 mm) guns at Iraqi targets during the First Gulf War. The U.S. Navy decommissioned all four battleships in the early 1990s with the end of the Cold War due to their high maintenance costs.

Initially, all four battleships were removed from the Naval Vessel Register; however, the United States Congress compelled the Navy to reinstate two of the four battleships on the grounds that existing naval gunfire support would be inadequate for amphibious operations. This resulted in a lengthy debate over whether battleships should have a role in the modern navy. Meanwhile, the battleships stricken from the Naval Vessel Register were slated to be donated to not-for-profit organizations. With the transfer of Iowa in 2012, all four battleships of the Iowa-class now operate as part of their associated non-profit maritime museums across the United States.