Unlike their sister ships Iowa and New Jersey that were the first pair of ships built, Missouri and Wisconsin were completed with an anti-aircraft suite of twenty quadruple mounts for 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors AA guns, nine mounts on each broadside and one each on the roofs of Turrets II and III. Their secondary battery consisted of twenty 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose guns mounted in twin-gun turrets clustered amidships, five turrets on each broadside. Going from bow to stern, the turrets were designated I, II, and III. The main battery of the Iowa-class ships consisted of nine 16 in (406 mm)/50 caliber Mark 7 guns in three triple- gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward of the superstructure, with the third aft. Armament, fire control, sensors and aircraft Wisconsin 's crew at that time numbered 173 officers and 2,738 sailors. Their designed crew numbered 117 officers and 1,804 enlisted men which had greatly increased by the end of the war in 1945. The ships had a designed cruising range of 15,000 nautical miles (28,000 km 17,000 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h 17 mph), although the New Jersey's fuel consumption figures during her sea trials suggest that her range was at least 20,150 nmi (37,320 km 23,190 mi) at that cruising speed. None of the Iowa 's ever ran speed trials in deep water, but the Bureau of Ships estimated that they could reach a speed of about 34 knots (63 km/h 39 mph) from 225,000 shp (168,000 kW) at a light displacement of 51,209 long tons (52,031 t). ![]() Rated at 212,000 shaft horsepower (158,000 kW), the turbines were designed to give a top speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h 37.4 mph), but were built to handle a 20 percent overload. The Iowa-class ships are powered by four General Electric geared steam turbines, each driving one screw propeller using steam provided by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The ship has a beam of 108 ft 2 in (33 m) and a draft of 37 ft 9 in (11.5 m) at her full combat load of 57,540 long tons (58,460 t). Wisconsin is 887 feet 3 inches (270.4 m) long overall and is 860 feet (262.1 m) long at the waterline. An escalator clause in the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 allowed an increase from 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) to 45,000 long tons (46,000 t) in the event that any member nation refused to sign the treaty, which Japan refused to do. Design studies prepared during the development of the earlier North Carolina and South Dakota classes demonstrated the difficulty in resolving the desires of fleet officers with those of the planning staff within the displacement limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty system, which had governed capital ship construction since 1923. American officers preferred comparatively slow but heavily armed and armored battleships, but Navy planners determined that such a fleet would have difficulty in bringing the faster Japanese fleet to battle, particularly the Kongō-class battlecruisers and the aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet. The last battleships to be built by the United States, they were also the US Navy's largest and fastest vessels of the type. The Iowa class of fast battleships was designed in the late 1930s in response to the US Navy's expectations for a future war with the Empire of Japan. Main articles: Iowa-class battleship and Armament of the Iowa class battleship On 15 April 2010, the City of Norfolk officially took over ownership of the ship. ![]() She currently functions as a museum ship operated by Nauticus in Norfolk, Virginia. Wisconsin was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) 17 March 2006, and was donated for permanent use as a museum ship. Wisconsin was last decommissioned in September 1991 after a total of 14 years of active service in the fleet, and having earned a total of six battle stars for service in World War II and Korea, as well as a Navy Unit Commendation for service during the January/February 1991 Gulf War. She was reactivated in 1986 after a modernization program, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in January – February 1991. During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned. Completed in 1944, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is currently a museum ship. 8 × quadruple BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |