![]() This resulted in the three treaty powers, the United States, Britain, and France, invoking the escalator clause after April 1937. Japan had refused to sign the treaty and in particular refused to accept the 14-inch gun caliber limit or the 5:5:3 ratio of warship tonnage limits for Britain, the United States, and Japan, respectively. Īnother factor was the "escalator clause" of the Second London Naval Treaty, which reverted the gun caliber limit from 14 inches (356 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm). This concept eventually evolved into the Fast Carrier Task Force, though initially the carriers were believed to be subordinate to the battleship. At the same time, a special strike force consisting of fast battleships operating alongside carriers and destroyers was being envisaged such a force could operate independently in advance areas and act as scouts. Even during the development process of the preceding North Carolina-class and South Dakota-class battleships, designs that could achieve over 30 knots in order to counter the threat of fast "big gun" ships were seriously considered. As a result, the US Navy envisioned a fast detachment of the battle line that could bring the Japanese fleet into battle. ![]() The chief concern was that the US Navy's traditional 21-knot battle line would be too slow to force these Japanese task forces into battle, while faster carriers and their cruiser escorts would be outmatched by the Japanese Kongō-class battlecruisers, which had been upgraded in the 1930s to fast battleships. War planners anticipated that the US fleet would engage and advance in the Central Pacific, with a long line of communication and logistics that would be vulnerable to high-speed Japanese cruisers. The vessels that eventually became the Iowa-class battleships were born from the US Navy's War Plan Orange, a Pacific war plan against Japan. With the transfer of Iowa in 2012, all four are part of non-profit maritime museums across the US. Ultimately, all four ships were stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and released for donation to non-profit organizations. This resulted in a lengthy debate over whether battleships should have a role in the modern navy. All four were initially removed from the Naval Vessel Register, but the United States Congress compelled the Navy to reinstate two of them on the grounds that existing NGFS would be inadequate for amphibious operations. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Missouri and Wisconsin fired missiles and 16-inch (406 mm) guns at Iraqi targets.Ĭostly to maintain, the battleships were decommissioned during the post- Cold War drawdown in the early 1990s. ![]() All four were reactivated and modernized at the direction of the United States Congress in 1981, and armed with missiles during the 1980s, as part of the 600-ship Navy initiative. During the Korean War, the battleships provided naval gunfire support (NGFS) for United Nations forces, and in 1968, New Jersey shelled Viet Cong and Vietnam People's Army forces in the Vietnam War. In the Pacific Theater of World War II, they served primarily as fast escorts for Essex-class aircraft carriers of the Fast Carrier Task Force and also shelled Japanese positions. Between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s, the Iowa-class battleships fought in four major US wars. All older US battleships were decommissioned by 1947 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) by 1963. The four Iowa-class ships were the last battleships commissioned in the US Navy. Four vessels, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin, were completed two more, Illinois and Kentucky, were laid down but canceled in 19, respectively, before completion, and both hulls were scrapped in 1958–1959. The Iowa class was designed to meet the Second London Naval Treaty's "escalator clause" limit of 45,000-long-ton (45,700 t) standard displacement. They were initially intended to intercept fast capital ships such as the Japanese Kongō class while also being capable of serving in a traditional battle line alongside slower battleships and act as its "fast wing". The Iowa class was a class of six fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 19. USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside on 15 August 1984 during a firepower demonstration after her recommissioning
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