Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/7

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The Iowa class battleships were the biggest, the most powerful, and the last battleships built for the United States Navy. Four were built in the early 1940s for World War II. All were decommissioned, then recommissioned in the 1980s and decommissioned again in the 1990s. Built with cost as no object, "The Iowa class fast-battleships were arguably the ultimate capital ship in the evolution of the battleship." Their true rival, however, was the aircraft carrier, which proved its title as the most important naval vessel during World War II naval battles in the Pacific.

The Iowa-class battleships improved upon the earlier South Dakota class with more powerful engines, longer caliber guns giving greater range and an additional 200 feet of length for improved seakeeping. The Iowas are widely considered to be amongst the most attractive battleships ever built, with a long, narrow, elegant bow and three powerful gun turrets. While excellent sea boats, the ships are quite wet forward due to the long bow, and the narrow forecastle made armoring No. 1 turret difficult. Like all American battleships of her generation, her armament was laid out in two turrets before the superstructure and one after ("2-A-1"), with the 5-inch dual-purpose secondaries (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) flanking the superstructure.