US NAVY BATTLESHIPS WW2

Though the building rate averaged almost exactly one per year, it was not a steady process, but was concentrated in two phases. The first, corresponding to the rise of the United States to first-class naval rank, began in 1888 and came to an abrupt halt with the signing of the Naval Limitations Treaty in 1922. The second building phase began in 1937 and was effectively finished in 1944 with the commissioning of battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), the last of ten battleships completed during this period.

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These battleships can be conveniently divided into four main groups:
Two experimental second-class battleships, of about 6000 tons, begun in the late 1880s (Maine and Texas);
Twenty-five battleships (eight "classes") with mixed main batteries of large and medium caliber guns, ranging in size from about 10,000 tons to 16,000 tons, begun from 1891 to 1905;
Twenty-nine battleships (eleven "classes") and six battle cruisers (one "class") with "all-big-gun" main batteries, begun between 1906 and 1919 and ranging from 16,000 tons to over 42,000 tons (including seven battleships and six battle cruisers cancelled in 1922);
Seventeen faster big-gun 35,000-60,500 ton battleships (four "classes") begun in 1937-41 (including seven 45,000-60,500 ton ships cancelled or suspended in 1943-47).
Gun caliber, as well as ship size, grew steadily, from ten inches in Maine to sixteen inches in the ships finished in the 'Twenties and afterwards. Effective gunnery range also increased, from a few thousand yards to about twenty miles.

Except for the fast Lexington Class battle cruisers and Iowa Class battleships, these were all relatively slow vessels, as heavily armored as they were armed, intended primarily to steam in formation with their "sisters" and slug it out with similar opponents, using their powerful guns to settle the matter. In their day, they were the "Queens of the Sea", the foundation of national strategic offense and defense. That "day" ended only with the arrival, effectively just before the start of World War II, of aircraft that could not only out-range the big guns, but also deliver blows of equal or greater power. Thereafter, at least in the daylight when the planes could fly, battleships performed as auxiliaries to aircraft carriers.

The Second World War brought another mission, shore-bombardment, in which the fire of heavy guns was precisely directed against enemy facilities ashore, to pave the way for invasion or to simply destroy war-making potential. This justified the retention of the big-gun ships in the post-war era and brought them back to active duty on three different occasions. Even today, some fifty-six years after the last battleship was completed, two are kept on the Naval Vessel Register for possible future employment in that role.

• Two experimental second-class battleships, of about 6000 tons, begun under the Fiscal Year 1887 program:
  

  - Texas (Originally classified as a battleship. Reclassified as a second-class battleship about 1894.); and
  - Maine (Originally Armored Cruiser #1. Reclassified as a second-class battleship about 1894.)
  

• Eight classes of "mixed-caliber" main battery battleships begun under the Fiscal Year 1891-1904 programs:
  (NOTE: These classes will be added gradually during 2001)

  - Indiana Class (Battleships #s 1 through 3) -- Fiscal Year 1891;
  - Iowa (Battleship # 4) -- Fiscal Year 1893;
  - Kearsarge Class (Battleships #s 5 & 6) -- Fiscal Year 1896;
  - Illinois Class (Battleships #s 7 through 9) -- Fiscal Year 1897;
  - Maine Class (Battleships #s 10 through 12) -- Fiscal Year 1899;
  - Virginia Class (Battleships #s 13 through 17) -- Fiscal Years 1900 & 1901;
  - Connecticut Class (Battleships #s 18 through 22 & 25) -- Fiscal Years 1903, 1904 & 1905;
  - Mississippi Class (Battleships #s 23 through 24) -- Fiscal Year 1904;

• Eleven classes of "all-big-gun" battleships begun under the Fiscal Year 1906-1919 programs:
  
• - South Carolina Class (Battleship #s 26 & 27) -- Fiscal Year 1906;
  - Delaware Class (Battleship #s 28 & 29) -- Fiscal Years 1907 and 1908;
  - Florida Class (Battleship #s 30 & 31) -- Fiscal Year 1909;
  - Wyoming Class (Battleship #s 32 & 33) -- Fiscal Year 1910;
  - New York Class (Battleship #s 34 & 35) -- Fiscal Year 1911;
  - Nevada Class (Battleship #s 36 & 37) -- Fiscal Year 1912;
  - Pennsylvania Class (Battleship #s 38 & 39) -- Fiscal Years 1913-14;
  - New Mexico Class (Battleship #s 40 through 42) -- Fiscal Year 1915;
  - Tennessee Class (BB-43 & BB-44) -- Fiscal Year 1916;
  - Colorado Class (BB-45 through BB-48) -- Fiscal Year 1917;
  - South Dakota Class (BB-49 through BB-54) -- Fiscal Years 1918
  
• One class of battle cruisers:
  

  Lexington Class (CC-1 through CC-6) -- Fiscal Years 1917-19.
  

• Four classes of battleships built or planned under the Fiscal Year 1937-41 programs:
  

  - North Carolina Class (BB-55 & BB-56) -- Fiscal Year 1937;
  - South Dakota Class (BB-57 through BB-60) -- Fiscal Year 1939;
  - Iowa Class (BB-61 through BB-66) -- Fiscal Year 1940-41;
  - Montana Class (BB-67 through BB-72) -- Fiscal Year 1941.
  

(credits: US Navy History Center)