American battleship USS Kentucky (BB-66) 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 Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 12 June 1944, the building was just stopped before the launching, stricken on 9 June 1958 and sold to be broken up in 31 October 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. Reclassified from BBG-1 into BB-66.

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.