II.

Battleship

The modern battleship traces its ancestry to the 74-gun ship-of-the-line of the sailing era. It is also the product of a series of modifications of the heavy steel ships that formed the backbone of the so-called New Navy of the 1880s, when the steel industry was introduced in the United States. The mission of the battleship was to conduct sustained combat operations at sea worldwide; to operate as an element of a carrier battle group or amphibious group; and in areas of lesser threat, to be capable of surface-action group operations with appropriate antisubmarine and antiair warfare escort ships.

The four battleships of the Iowa class were modernized and recommissioned in the 1980s. All were decommissioned in the 1990s. In addition to their nine 406-mm (16-in) guns in three turrets, used primarily for shore bombardment, each carries twelve 127-mm (5-in) twin batteries for antiaircraft protection, four Phalanx close-in weapons systems for defense against antiship missiles, and sixteen Tomahawk cruise missiles for surface warfare and land attack. Crew levels have dropped from 6,000 (during World War II) to 1,700 enlisted personnel and 100 officers. The sides, superstructure, and deck of the ship consist of steel plate armor varying in thickness from 13 to 41 cm (5 to 16 in). A battleship of the Iowa class measures 270 m (885 ft) in length and 33 m (108 ft) in beam; it displaces about 58,000 tons at full load and attains speeds of 33 knots.