Standard-type battleship

The Standard type, by specifying common tactical operational characteristics between classes, allowed battleships of different classes to operate together as a tactical unit (BatDiv) against enemy battleships. By contrast, other navies had fast and slow battleship classes that could not operate together unless limited to the performance of the ship with slowest speed and widest turning circle. Otherwise the battle line would be split into separate "fast" and "slow" wings. The Standard type was optimized for the battleship-centric naval strategy of the era of their design. The next US battleship classes, beginning with the designed in the late 1930s and commissioned in 1941, marked a departure from the Standard type, introducing the fast battleships needed to escort the aircraft carriers that came to dominate naval strategy. == List of Standard-type battleships ==

Characteristics Characteristics of the Standard type included: • all-or-nothing armor scheme • All main guns on the centerline in fore and aft turrets with no amidships guns • designed range of about at economical cruising speed • top speed of • tactical turn radius of 700 yards The , the first US battleships to mount guns, represented the endpoint of the gradual evolution of the "Standard Type" battleships. The Colorado-class battleships were long, displaced 32,600 tons, had a top speed of , and carried a main battery of eight guns. The next planned class of Standard battleships, the never-completed s, represented a significant increase in size and armament over the Colorados. They would have been long, displaced 43,200 tons, had a top speed of , and carried 12 guns. Nonetheless, the design characteristics of the South Dakotas closely followed the Standard-type battleship, albeit at a greater scale. Like the Tennessees and Colorados, they were designed with the same bridges, lattice masts and turbo-electric propulsion system and they used the same torpedo protection system as the latter class. Naval historian Norman Friedman described the South Dakotas as the ultimate development of the series of U.S. battleships that began with the , despite the increase in size, speed and intermediate armament from the standard type that characterized the Nevada through Colorado classes. == Service history ==

World War I All the Standard-types were oil-burning. Since oil was scarce in the British Isles, only Nevada and Oklahoma actively participated in World War I by escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Britain. During the Pearl Harbor attack, Arizona forward magazine exploded from a bomb hit and Oklahoma capsized after multiple torpedo strikes, both with significant losses of life. West Virginia and California were also sunk, while Nevada managed to get underway and was beached shortly afterward. Tennessee and Maryland each received two bomb hits. Pennsylvania was not fully repaired after being severely damaged by an air-launched torpedo in the closing days of the Pacific War. In 1946 Mississippi was converted to a test vessel for new gun and missile systems and served until 1956. Most other Standard-type battleships were decommissioned in 1946 or 1947 and placed in the reserve fleet; ultimately all were scrapped by 1961. == Footnotes ==