South Dakota class battleship (1920)
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- Two classes of battleships have been called the South Dakota class; for the one that saw action in World War II, see South Dakota class battleship (1939).
| South Dakota class battleship | |
|---|---|
| Class Overview | |
| Class Type | Battleship |
| Class Name | South Dakota |
| Preceded By | Colorado-class |
| Succeeded By | North Carolina-class |
| Ships of the Class: | South Dakota, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Iowa, Massachusetts |
| General characteristics (as designed) | |
| Displacement: | 43,200 tons |
| Length: | 684 ft (208 m) |
| Beam: | 105 ft (32 m) |
| Draft: | 33 ft (10.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 23 knots (43 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | |
| Armament: | Twelve 16 inch (406 mm) 50-caliber guns, 16 six-inch (152 mm) 53 caliber guns, eight three-inch (76 mm) 50-caliber antiaircraft guns, two 21 inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes |
The first South Dakota class was authorized 4 March 1917, and keels were laid down in 1920 for six ships. However, the Washington Naval Treaty prohibited their completion, construction was halted 8 February 1922, and the unfinished hulls were sold in 1923. The first South Dakota class was an outgrowth of the Standard type battleships, though a greatly modified form: Displacement would have been 20,000 tons greater than the other Standards, with only a two-knot increase in speed. The class was ordered in the same program that created the Lexington-class battlecruisers; the Lexingtons made better conversion hulls because they were further along in their construction and were designed for a far higher speed. Two Lexington hulls were converted to Lexington-class aircraft carriers, the remaining ten ships of the 1917 shipbuilding program - four battlecruisers and six battleships - were scrapped.
