American battleship USS Illinois (BB-65) 1945-1958

South Dakota-class

Iowa-class

Preliminary design Montana-class battleships dated 9 July 1940

Part of the Iowa-class consisting of the Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky preceded by the South Dakota-class and succeeded by the never realized Montana-class. The designing-process of a fast battleship started in 1938. Building ordered on 9 September 1940, laid down at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 15 January 1945, the building was just stopped before the launching and broken up still on stocks in September 1958. Originally intended to be Montana-class battleship as an answer on the Japanese Yamato-class battleships, was the design more that of an Iowa-class.

General technical class specifications. Displacement 45.000 (standard)-52.000 (mean war service)-57.000 (full load before the 1980s)-58.000 (full load after the 1980s) tons and as dimensions 262,5 (between perpendiculars)-270,43 (over all)x 32,97 x 11,33 metres or 861¼-887’3”x 108’2” x 37’2”. The machinery consisted of General Electric geared steam turbines and 8 water tube boilers delivering 212.000 shp. Speed 32,5-35,2 (light load) 3 knots. With a speed of 15 knots was the range 14.890 miles. Original armament in 1943: 3x3-40,6cm/16” /50 cal Mark 7 guns, 20-12,7cm/5” /38 cal Mark 12 guns, 80-4cm /56cal anti aircraft guns and 49-2cm /70 cal anti aircraft guns.