Wyoming class battleship

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Wyoming-class battleship

Class Overview
Class type:	Battleship
Class name	The State of Wyoming
Preceded by:	Florida class
Succeeded by:	New York class
Ships of the line:	Wyoming (BB-32), Arkansas (BB-33)
General Characteristics (USS Wyoming)
Displacement:	Standard:27,243 tons Mean War Service:
Length:	562 ft
Beam:	93 ft 2 in
Draft:	28 ft 5 in
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h)
Complement:	1,063 officers and men
Armour	Turrets: 6

The Wyoming class battleship was a series of two battleships of the United States Navy which served during World War I and World War II.

1 Description
2 Upgrades
3 History
4 See also
5 Ships in class
- 5.1 USS Wyoming
- 5.2 USS Arkansas

[edit] Description

The class marked a significant growth over its predecessor--the Florida class--of some 20% in size. This allowed the addition of a sixth main turret and increased armor. This brought the class' main armament up to twelve 12 inch guns in their twin mounts. The midships turret in both this and the following New York class battleships proved problematic; the turrets and magazines were both mounted near the boiler spaces with high pressure steam piping surrounding the magazines. This produced a marked temperature difference in the powder charges and contributed to excessive dispersions in the pattern of shell fall from the two classes. Attempts to cool the 12" midship magazines were only moderately successful. Wyoming was the final battleship class in the United States to employ direct drive steam turbines for power. Geared turbines, Triple expansion steam engines, and turbo-electric drive were all found to give better range for fuel expended.

[edit] Upgrades

Modernization began in 1925 finishing 1927. This included anti-torpedo blisters giving them broader beams, greater displacement and thicker deck armor. Oil-burning boilers were added with a single smoke stack and reduction to a single cage mast. Both were outfitted with newer gunfire controls. Some of the 5" secondary was moved to the superstructure. Arkansas was used as a gunnery training ship while Wyoming had all her 12" guns removed and had more 5" dual purpose guns added becoming an urgently needed anti-aircraft training platform.

[edit] History

Despite the class name, Arkansas preceded Wyoming both in construction and commissioning, although both were commissioned during September 1912. As the class was fitted with coal-fired boilers both Wyoming and Arkansas able to operate with the British Grand Fleet in the then-oil-deprived North Sea during World War I. Before the war, they served in the Atlantic Fleet and afterwards in both the Atlantic and Pacific, with modernization following in 1925-27. Both ships served in both world wars, and like many older American ships were quickly retired at the end of the second. Wyoming marked the end of the class' nearly 35 years of service when decommissioned 1 August 1947 for scrapping. Arkansas had already been sunk during nuclear testing in the Pacific.

[edit] See also

[edit] Ships in class

USS Wyoming

[edit] USS Wyoming

Designation: Battleship No.32, BB-32, AG-17
Builder: William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia
Laid down: 9 February 1910
Launched: 25 May 1911
Commissioned: 25 September 1912
Operations: World War I convoy escort in the North Sea, interwar and World War II gunnery trainer
Victories:
Fate: Decommissioned 1 August 1947 and scrapped