USS Kentucky (BB-66)

USS Kentucky under construction. The barbettes which would have held the gun turrets are prominent.
Career (US)
Ordered:	9 September 1940
Builder:	Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	12 June 1944
Launched:	Canceled prior to launch
Struck:	9 June 1958
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 31 October 1958
General characteristics
Class and type:	Iowa-class battleship
Displacement:	45,000 tons (planned)
Length:	887 ft 3 in (270.43 m) (planned)
Beam:	108 ft 2 in (32.97 m) (planned)
Speed:	33 kn (38 mph; 61 km/h) (planned)
Complement:	151 officers, 2,637 enlisted (planned)
Armament:	(planned): 9 × 16 in (410 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns 10 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns 80 × 40 mm/56 cal anti-aircraft guns 49 × 20 mm/70 cal anti-aircraft guns
Armor:	Belt: 12.1 in (310 mm) Bulkheads: 11.3 in (290 mm) Barbettes: 11.6 to 17.3 in (290 to 440 mm) Turrets: 19.7 in (500 mm) Decks: 7.5 in (190 mm)

USS^{[A 1]} Kentucky (BB-66) was to be the sixth and final Iowa-class battleship constructed for the United States Navy; she was the second ship to be named in honor of Kentucky. Among the Iowa-class battleships, Kentucky is notable for being the last authorized Iowa-class battleship, and for being the only ship of the class considered for a guided missile rebuild.

Hull BB-66 was originally to be the second ship of the Montana-class battleships, but the Second World War showed that the US needed more fast battleships to escort the new Essex-class aircraft carriers that were being built. As a result, Kentucky was reordered as an Iowa-class battleship midway through the war. This allowed her to gain eight knots in speed, the ability to transit the locks of the Panama Canal, and increased the number of anti-aircraft guns. The cost was the loss of her additional armor and a main gun turret that were to have been added to BB-66 as a Montana-class battleship.

Like her sister ship Illinois, Kentucky was still under construction at the end of World War II and was caught up in the post-war drawdown of the armed services. Her construction was suspended twice, during which times she served as a spare parts cache of sorts, until being sold for scrap in 1958 after several failed attempts to have her completed as a guided missile battleship.

Background

Kentucky was one of the "fast battleship" designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was to be the fifth of the six authorized ships of the Iowa class of battleships. Her keel was laid down at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia on 6 December 1944. Like Illinois, Kentucky differed from her earlier sisters in that her design called for an all welded construction. This would have saved weight and increased strength over a combination riveted/welded hull of the type used on the four completed Iowa-class ships. It was proposed that the hulls of Illinois and Kentucky be redesigned with greater torpedo protection, which would have been a 20% improvement over the system used aboard the South Dakotas and the first four Iowas in addition to reducing flooding in the event of a torpedo strike; it is unclear if this was adopted.^[1] however, this was rejected and Kentucky was built along the regular Iowa class hull design.

Like her Iowa-class sisters, Kentucky's construction began in response to the need for fast escorts for the Essex-class aircraft carriers. She was conceived in 1935, when the United States Navy initiated design studies for the creation of an extended South Dakota class that was not restricted by the Second London Naval Treaty. The latter four Iowa class battleships (Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky) were not cleared for construction until 12 July 1940,^[2] and at the time Illinois and Kentucky were to be larger, slower battleship mounting twelve 16 in (410 mm) Mark 7 guns.^{[3][A 2]} By late 1939, it had become apparent that the navy needed as many fast battleships as possible and it was decided that BB-65 and BB-66 would follow the same design as their sisters.^{[4][A 3]}

Construction

Kentucky's main battery would have consisted of nine 16 in (410 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns, which could hurl 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) armor piercing shells some 20 mi (32 km). Her secondary battery would have consisted of 20 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal guns arranged in 10 gun turrets, which could fire at targets up to 10 mi (16 km) away. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of Allied aircraft carriers. To this end, Kentucky was to be fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns to defend allied carriers from enemy airstrikes.^[5][6]

The hull of the incomplete Kentucky is floated out of drydock to allow USS Missouri (BB-63) to drydock for repairs

Kentucky's construction was plagued by suspensions; the first came on 6 June 1942 when Kentucky was suspended and her bottom structure launched to make room for LST construction.^[7] Kentucky's construction resumed on 6 December 1944 with a new keel laying, but construction of the battleship was suspended again on 17 February 1947. Her construction resumed once again on 17 August 1948, and continued until her cancellation on 20 January 1950, at which time she was floated out of her drydock to clear a space for repairs to sister ship Missouri, which had run aground en route from Hampton Roads.^[8][9]

Fate

Concept artwork of what Kentucky may have looked like had she been completed as a guided missile battleship

Kentucky was never completed, instead serving as a supply cache of sorts while in the mothball fleet at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from about 1950 to 1958.^[2] It was during this time that several plans were proposed to complete Kentucky as a guided missile battleship (BBG) by removing the aft turret and installing a missile system. Since the battleship was already 73.1% complete^[2] (construction had been halted at the 1st deck),^[10] installation of the missile system would have involved only adding the necessary equipment without any need to rebuild the battleship to accommodate the system.^{[A 4]} Concept artwork of the proposed missile conversion for Kentucky shows her aft end fitted with a pair of RIM-2 Terrier missile launchers.

In May or June 1956, Kentucky's bow was removed and transported on a large crane barge from Newport News, Virginia, where she had been towed, back to Norfolk Naval Shipyard, to be used in the repair of Wisconsin, which had been damaged in a collision with Eaton on 6 May 1956.^[2] A new bow was fabricated but never installed; it was stored on her deck until the hulk was towed away.^[11]

When the first two of the Sacramento-class fast combat support ships, Sacramento and Camden, were laid down in 1961 and 1964, the Navy turned to Kentucky's four turbine sets to power the ships. This would later prove to be a beneficial move: when the Navy switched from 600 psi (4.1 MPa) boilers to 1,200 psi (8.3 MPa) boilers, sailors who had served aboard these Sacramentos were called upon to operate the older boilers aboard New Jersey during her combat tour in the Vietnam War and aboard all four of the Iowas when recalled and modernized in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy plan.^[2]

Kentucky was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 June 1958 and her incomplete hulk was sold for scrapping to Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland, on 31 October.^[10][12] Kentucky was the second-to-last battleship under construction by the US Navy,^[13] and holds the title of being the highest numbered battleship hull to have been under construction but not completed for the United States Navy. USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is numerically the highest numbered US battleship built, although she was actually completed before Missouri, making Missouri the last completed US battleship.^[12][14]

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

• Kentucky (BB-66), 1942-1958
• Iowa-class (BB-61 through BB-66), 1940 & 1941 Building Programs
• NavSource