List of battleships of the United States Navy
Appearance
Ships of the United States Navy | |
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Ships in current service | |
Ships grouped alphabetically | |
Ships grouped by type | |
This list of battleships of the United States Navy includes all ships with the hull classification symbol "BB". A number of these were started but never completed.
Four battleships of the US Navy were designated "second class battleships," these ships were smaller and lighter than normal battleships, with an eye toward saving money; but the Navy Department didn't like them very much and preferred to save money by building a more limited number of the best battleships they could afford. Thus, the US Navy never matched or even closely rivaled the line of battle of the Royal Navy in sheer numbers, but tended to have more powerful ships which could take more damage.
(should add the five unnumbered battleships)
- (s) indicates ship was second class battleship (relative to other US battleships of the era)
- (n) indicates ship never entered service.
Ship list
Battleship classes
Pre-Dreadnought
- USS Maine (1895) (one-off)
- USS Texas (1896) (one-off)
- Indiana class battleship (1895) (3 ships)
- USS Iowa (one-off)
- Kearsarge class battleship (1900) (2 ships)
- Illinois class battleship (1901) (3 ships)
- Maine class battleship (1902) (3 ships)
- Virginia class battleship (1906) (5 ships)
- Connecticut class battleship (1906) (6 ships)
- Mississippi class second-class battleship (1908) (2 ships)
Dreadnought era
- South Carolina class battleship (2 ships)
- Delaware class battleship (2 ships)
- Florida class battleship (2 ships)
- Wyoming class battleship (2 ships)
- New York class battleship (2 ships)
Standard type Battleships
- Nevada class battleship (2 ships)
- Pennsylvania class battleship (2 ships)
- New Mexico class battleship (3 ships)
- Tennessee class battleship (2 ships)
- Colorado class battleship (3 ships, 1 cancelled due to the Washington Naval Treaty)
- South Dakota class battleship (6 ships, all cancelled due to the Washington Naval Treaty
Dreadnought era Battlecruisers
- Lexington class battlecruiser (2 ships converted to aircraft carriers, the rest cancelled due to the Washington Naval Treaty)
World War II era
- North Carolina class battleship (1941) (2 ships)
- South Dakota class battleship (1942) (4 ships)
- Iowa class battleship (1943) (6 ships, 2 cancelled because of pressing need for aircraft carriers in the fleet)
- Montana class battleship (5 ships, all cancelled)