- Yes, I think she should be added to the game
- Maybe
- Unsure
- I don’t think she should be added to the game
- As built
- Early 1944
- Late 1945
- 1948 Refit
- 1951 Refit
- 1952 Refit
- 1955 Refit
- 1984 Refit
- Unsure/No preference
- I don’t think she should be added in-game
Background
USS Missouri was the 3rd ship of the Iowa class battleships that were built for the United States Navy during world war 2 and would end being the last American battleship ever be completed though the thing with the Missouri despite not being the last laid down. Compared to Iowa and New Jersey both Missouri and Wisconsin despite all being of the same class were slight different in design, this difference also applies with the 2 incomplete vessels which were planned to have further changes however each change with the 2nd and 3rd pair of Iowa class was done in order to improve the protection.
As was with all of the Iowa class they came with 9 16 inch 50 caliber Mark 7 guns in 3 turrets for their primary armament, the secondary armament consisted of 20 5 inch 38 cal Mark 12 guns in 10 twin Mark 28 Mod 2 turrets with 5 on each side as the ship to serve as both secondary weaponry as well as dual purpose weaponry, finally the ships came with a variety of 40mm and 20mm AA guns to complete there armament though the number varied on the ship in question and the time, especially due to the level of additions made on deployment. Another note is that with the 1980’s modernization the ships of the class saw major reconfiguration as they had the armament radically changed with the dual purpose battery being reduced to 12 5 inch guns with 6 turrets remaining, the AA battery being completely removed and in their place the ships had 4 20mm CWIS mounts added as well as they gained missile systems with launchers for both tomahawks cruise missiles and harpoon anti ship missiles being installed. The main difference though between the first pair and the second pair was the armor as compared to Iowa and New Jersey they had increased protection within the bulkheads of the ships with thicknesses that previously ranged from 287mm to 216mm were now sitting at 368mm to 297mm of armor however this change seems to have not affected their speed.
History
Spoiler
USS Missouri was laid down on January 6th, 1941 as the third ship of the Iowa class, she was launched on January 29th, 1944, and entered service on June 11th, 1944. Due to Missouri entering late into the war 1944 her time in the Second world war would generally see her mostly assisting in escorting the carriers as by that point the IJN had loss a majority of its forces and so by this point naval engagements between American ships and Japanese ship directly were rare and with the Iowa class covering the carriers they saw really no chance to really get into a major action against enemy formations though she would also provide occasional shore bombardment.
Due to this she also found herself like many allied ships came under air attack often which also saw her rapidly see her AA battery grow in the form of more 20mm cannons though the 40mm gun battery never grew as from the start she already had a hefty battery of these guns with a total of 80 guns in 20 quad mounts placed all around the ship, in one interesting case one of these 40mm guns also managed to acquire a Japanese machine gun in it’s barrel as a Kamikaze attempted to hit the ship, by the end of the war she acquired a total of 65 20mm guns.
Her most important role in terms of war would be the last day of the war in August of 1945 Missouri found herself in Tokyo Bay where she hosted the Japanese delegation for the surrender of Japan ending the Second World War for most, except for the Russians. Due to the significance of the signing of the surrender of Japan a plaque was placed on her deck which marks the exact spot of where the treaty was signed and is still present on the ship to this day.
For Missouri she like many other American ships took part in operation magic carpet which saw her help bring troops back home, she also took part in the American naval victory parade which took place on the US east coast in New York. One interesting event post war for her was in 1946 when she also payed a visit to Turkey as she carried to body of the last Turkish ambassador who died in 1944, this visit also saw the very unusual event where she took part in a gun salute with the German world war 1 battlecruiser Goeben now named Yavuz. By 1946 many US ships including many of the battleships had been or were preparing to enter the reserve due to a cut in spending in the US navy as with the defeat of Japan the US had definitively set itself as the the most powerful navy and even then they found themselves with more ships than they knew what to do with as they began to get rid of older ships such as the many destroyers which predated the Fletcher class as anything older was thrown into reserve or sold for scrap and even the Iowa class was being put into the reserves, yet Missouri was the one exception thanks to president Truman due to two reason, the first being simply due to him being fond of battleships and the second was due to the fact his daughter was the one to christen her and as such he prevented its move into reserve despite the US navy understanding the age of the battleship was over. In 1950 she also undertook the ritual most US battleships seem to practice when she ran aground in home waters in 1950 which saw her stuck for a few days.
What’s funny is that this personal bias being the motivation to keep the ship in the active fleet would really turn out to actually end up being worth the time as when the Korean War broke out Missouri was the only active US battleship and the US navy found it didn’t have enough ships to support efforts in Korea which saw a mass reactivation of a sizable amount of the US navy including her sisters who had to take some time to work up, the thing is that despite how carriers were more useful naval vessels the battleship was still infinitely more useful for bombardment of land targets hence why the Iowa class managed to stick around for quite some time. Near the end of the conflict she would take part in the only cruise that saw all 4 of the Iowa class battleship sail together and following this she was shortly thereafter deactivated and put in reserve.
After 30 years of being inactive for 30 years since the 1950’s Missouri was brought out of reserve in the 1980’s as apart of President Reagan’s 600 ship navy which saw all the Iowa class battleship brought out of the reserve to make up some of the numbers and were overhauled and extensively modernized with new systems such as CWIS as well as cruiser missiles and anti ship missiles along with other systems installed.
During her second period of service she took part in the Gulf war which saw her provide shore bombardment which was further helped by the new cruise missiles and during which she also was the victim of a friendly fire incident and as the war neared its end she helped with minesweeping of all things.
In the early 1990’s with the Soviet Union collapsing the power of the Iowa class was no longer needed and as such in 1992 she was taken out of service and in 1995 was stricken from the naval register and in 1998 the US Navy began preparations to tow her to across the pacific in order to open a memorial along with USS Arizona as a representation of the beginning and end of the Second World War though they first had her towed into the Columbia river in order to kill any barnacles and sea grass that had become stuck to the hull and following which she was towed to Hawaii that year and in 1999 she was opened to the public as a museum ship and is where she remains today with her most notable event occurring since then being when she was towed out to open water after she had been overhauled as she was used for filming during the movie Battleship.
]Specifications (1944 - 1955)
Displacement:
Standard: 48,110 long tons
Fully loaded: 57,540 long tons
Length: 887 feet 3 inches (270.4 m) (overall)
Beam: 108 ft 2 in (33 m)
Draft: 36 ft 2.25 in (11 m) (fully loaded)
Installed power:
8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
212,000 shaft horsepower(158,000 kW)
Propulsion:
4 × steam turbines
4 × screw propellers
Speed: 32.5 knots (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Range: 15,000 nmi (28,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 1,921 total
Sensors and systems:
As built
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radar
4 x Mark 12.22 radar
Early 1945
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radars
4 x Mark 12.22 radar
SP radar
Late 1945
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
SP radar
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radars
4 x Mark 12.22 radars
1948
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
SP radar
SR-3 radar
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radars
4 x Mark 12.22 radars
1951
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
SP radar
SR-3 radar
SG-6 radar
SPS-6 radar
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radars
4 x Mark 12.22 radars
1955
SK-2 radar
2 x SG radars
SR-3 radar
SG-6 radar
SPS-6 radar
SPS-8 radar
SPS-10 radar
Mark 27 radar
2 x Mark 8 radars
4 x Mark 25 radars
Electronic warfare and countermeasures:
Early 1945
TDY ECM suite
Armament
As built
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns (10 x 2)
Anti air armament:
80 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (20 x 4)
49 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (49 x 1)
Early 1945
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (10 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Anti air armament:
80 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (20 x 4)
65 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (49 x 1 & 8 x 2)
Late 1945
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (10 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Anti air armament:
80 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (20 x 4)
48 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (32 x 1 & 8 x 2)
1950 (Pre Korea)
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (10 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Anti air armament:
64 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (16 x 4)
28 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (14 x 2)
1951 (Early Korean War)
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (10 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Anti air armament:
80 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (20 x 4)
44 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (22 x 2)
1952
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
20 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (10 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Anti air armament:
80 × 40 mm/56 Bofors AA guns (20 x 4)
Armor:
belt: 307mm on 22mm plating
lower belt: 307mm - 41mm on 22mm plating
main deck: 178mm
upper deck: 38mm
splinter deck: 25mm - 16mm
bulkheads: 368mm - 297mm
barbettes: 295mm - 439mm
Main turrets:
495mm face
184mm crown
260mm sides
305mm rear
CT:
440mm sides
184mm roof
Specifications (1984)
Displacement:
Standard: 50,453 long tons
Fully loaded: 59,065 long tons
Length: 887 feet 3 inches (270.4 m) (overall)
Beam: 108 ft 2 in (33 m)
Draft: 37 ft 2 in (11.3 m) (fully loaded)
Installed power:
8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
212,000 shaft horsepower(158,000 kW)
Propulsion:
4 × steam turbines
4 × screw propellers
Speed: 32.5 knots (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Range: 15,000 nmi (28,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 1,518 total
Sensors and systems:
SPS-49 radar
SPS-67 radar
SPS-64 radar
2 x Mark 13 radars
4 x Mark 25 radars
Electronic warfare & decoy:
SLQ-32(v)3 ECM suite
8 x SRBOC Mark 36 decoy RL
SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo decoy
Armament
Primary Armament:
9 × 16 inch (406 mm)/50 Mark 7 guns (3 x 3)
Secondary armament:
12 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 Mark 12 guns (6 x 2 Mark 28 Mod 2 mounts)
Cruise missiles:
32 x BGM-109B Tomahawk cruise missiles (8 x 4 armored launchers)
Anti ship missiles:
4 x RGM-84A Harpoon anti ship missile launchers (Up to 16 missiles total; 4 per launcher position, can be configured to carry less launchers per mount as with other harpoon launchers)
Anti aircraft guns:
4 x 20 mm Phalanx CWIS (Block 0 Mod 1)
Additional weapons:
2 x 25mm Mark 38 Mod 0 chain guns (2 x 1) (Was not installed originally but was added at some point)
8 x 12.7mm Machine guns (8 x 1) (Based off mounting points provided)
Armor:
belt: 307mm on 22mm plating
lower belt: 307mm - 41mm on 22mm plating
main deck: 178mm
upper deck: 38mm
splinter deck: 25mm - 16mm
bulkheads: 368mm - 297mm
barbettes: 295mm - 439mm
Main turrets:
495mm face
184mm crown
260mm sides
305mm rear
CT:
440mm sides
184mm roof
Sources
Spoiler
Iowa-class battleship - Wikipedia
USS Missouri (BB-63) - Wikipedia
Image sources