# List of battleships of the United States Navy
The battleships of the [United States Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-navy) were the heavily armored, big-gun capital ships that formed the American battle line from 1895 until 1992. Across the steel-battleship era the Navy constructed 59 battleships in 23 classes, with another 20 battleships and battle cruisers begun or planned but never completed[1](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/exploration-and-innovation/steel-navy.html). Ships of the type carried "BB" hull numbers, formally assigned in July 1920; earlier vessels were referred to by "Battleship Number" corresponding to the BB number they received or would have received[2](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First seagoing battleship | USS Indiana (BB-1), keel laid 7 May 1891, commissioned 20 November 1895[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) |
| Total built | 59 steel battleships in 23 classes; 20 more battleships and battle cruisers begun or planned but not completed[1](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/exploration-and-innovation/steel-navy.html) |
| Pre-dreadnought era | 25 battleships in 8 classes with mixed main batteries, about 10,000 to 16,000 tons, begun 1891 to 1905[2](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html) |
| Dreadnought era | 29 all-big-gun battleships in 11 classes and 6 battle cruisers, 16,000 to over 42,000 tons, begun 1906 to 1919; 7 battleships and 6 battle cruisers canceled in 1922[2](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html) |
| Fast battleships | North Carolina (1941), South Dakota (1942), and Iowa (1943-44) classes; the Iowas made 33 knots at 887 feet and 45,000 tons standard[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) |
| Last ordered, never built | Montana class (BB-67 to BB-71), five ships of 60,500 tons with twelve 16-inch/50 guns, canceled in July 1943[4](https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/montana-bb67.html) |
| End of the type | Missouri (BB-63) decommissioned 31 March 1992, closing a battleship era that began with the Indiana's keel in 1891[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) |
## Beginnings: the pre-dreadnought fleet
The Navy's first battleships grew out of a coastal-defense philosophy. The Navy Act of 30 June 1890 authorized "three sea-going coast-line battle ships," which became the Indiana class, the first U.S. ships designated as battleships, though qualified as "coast-line"[5](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2024/february/segue-ship). Congress added the 9,100-ton Iowa in 1892 as a prototype for a true seagoing battleship; she was officially "Battleship No. 4," later BB-4 under the hull classification system instituted on 17 July 1920[5](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2024/february/segue-ship). The Indiana (BB-1) herself was commissioned on 20 November 1895, displacing 10,288 tons with a mixed battery of four 13-inch, eight 8-inch, and four 6-inch guns[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
The Navy's first real battleship action came in the 1898 Spanish-American War, in which the USS Oregon (BB-3) steamed from San Francisco around [Cape Horn](https://www.edgepedia.org/cape-horn) to reach Cuba[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). In all, 25 battleships in eight classes with mixed main batteries of large and medium caliber guns, ranging from about 10,000 to 16,000 tons, were begun between 1891 and 1905[2](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html). President [Theodore Roosevelt](https://www.edgepedia.org/theodore-roosevelt) demonstrated the growing fleet by sending 16 battleships, the "Great White Fleet," around the world from late 1907 to early 1909[1](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/exploration-and-innovation/steel-navy.html).
## The dreadnought era
HMS [Dreadnought](https://www.edgepedia.org/dreadnought), commissioned by the [Royal Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-navy) in 1906, pioneered the all-big-gun format that became standard thereafter[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). The American equivalent had been conceived earlier: the [South Carolina](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-carolina) (BB-26) and Michigan (BB-27), authorized by Congress on 3 March 1905, carried eight 12-inch guns and introduced superfiring turrets, mounted higher than the turrets behind them, which let all guns fire on the centerline and packed the same broadside as the ten-gun Dreadnought on 2,000 tons less displacement[6](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2010/february/south-carolina-sisters-americas-first-dreadnoughts). Slow American construction delayed their completion until 1910[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
Twenty-nine battleships in eleven classes with all-big-gun main batteries, ranging from 16,000 to over 42,000 tons, were begun between 1906 and 1919, together with six battle cruisers of one class; seven of the battleships and all six battle cruisers were canceled under the 1922 naval limitations treaty[2](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html). The treaty, signed after World War I, imposed a moratorium on battleship construction and limited ship size; it also killed the six ships of the [South Dakota](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-dakota) (BB-49) class, each designed at more than 40,000 tons with twelve 16-inch guns, while they were under construction[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
**The Standard type.** From the Nevada (BB-36), laid down in 1912, American battleships followed a distinctive formula. Nevada introduced the "all or nothing" armor scheme, concentrating armor in a waterline belt and an armored deck against plunging fire rather than spreading it over the superstructure, and carried ten 14-inch guns in the Navy's first three-gun turrets[7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/june/us-navys-three-gun-turrets). Throughout its run the Standard type produced ships of 21 knots maximum speed with roughly a 700-yard tactical diameter at that speed, so the classes could fight together in a line[8](https://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-071.php). The jump to 16-inch guns came with the Maryland (BB-46), commissioned in 1921[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
## World War II and the fast battleships
At [Pearl Harbor](https://www.edgepedia.org/pearl-harbor) on 7 December 1941, battleships were the main Japanese targets; the Pacific Fleet's nine battleships were moored along "Battleship Row" on the east side of [Ford Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/ford-island), and nearly half of the attack's deaths came from [USS Arizona](https://www.edgepedia.org/uss-arizona), sunk by an explosion when a bomb penetrated her deck and ignited a forward magazine[9](https://www.defense.gov/multimedia/experience/remembering-pearl-harbor/). Survivors such as Tennessee, California, and West Virginia were rebuilt and later fought at Surigao Strait in October 1944, the last battle-line engagement of the U.S. Navy[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
Once Japan left the treaty system in the mid-1930s, the Navy inaugurated a new type, the fast battleship, capable of 27 knots rather than the 21-knot standard, armed with nine 16-inch and twenty 5-inch guns[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). The North Carolina (BB-55) class reached the fleet in 1941 and the South Dakota (BB-57) class in 1942, both displacing just over 36,000 tons at 28 knots[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) • [7](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/june/us-navys-three-gun-turrets). The final four battleships completed by the United States were the Iowa class (BB-61 through BB-64), commissioned in 1943 and 1944: 887 feet long, 45,000 tons standard displacement, 33 knots, and more than 120 antiaircraft guns each when new[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
The wartime Navy's battleship strength grew to 23 ships in combat service before the war's end[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). In practice the big guns rarely fired at enemy warships; battleships instead provided antiaircraft protection for fast carrier task groups and shore bombardment for amphibious landings, from the D-Day beaches of Normandy, where Arkansas, Nevada, and Texas fired on 6 June 1944, to the island campaigns of the Pacific[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). The war ended ceremonially on the deck of the Missouri (BB-63), which hosted the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
## The unbuilt Montana class and the postwar decades
The Montana class (BB-67 through BB-71), authorized under the 1940 "Two Ocean Navy" program, were the last battleships the U.S. Navy ordered. At 60,500 tons standard displacement they were nearly a third larger than the Iowas, carried twelve 16-inch/50 guns, and would have been the only new World War II era American battleships adequately armored against guns of their own power; their beam was too wide for the existing [Panama Canal locks](https://www.edgepedia.org/panama-canal-locks)[4](https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/montana-bb67.html). Construction was suspended in May 1942, before any keel was laid, and canceled in July 1943 as carrier aviation became the dominant element of sea power[4](https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/montana-bb67.html).
The Navy ended World War II with 23 battleships in commission; by 1949 only the Missouri remained active[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). The [Korean War](https://www.edgepedia.org/korean-war) brought the Iowa-class ships back for shore bombardment, and when Wisconsin decommissioned in early 1958 the Navy was without active battleships for the first time since 1895[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy). New Jersey was reactivated for one Vietnam deployment in 1968-69, and the Reagan administration recommissioned all four Iowas in the 1980s, adding cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and modern radars[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) • [10](https://apnews.com/article/0940368b39b19f03abe8689ebad08380). Missouri and Wisconsin provided missile and gunfire support in the 1991 [Gulf War](https://www.edgepedia.org/gulf-war), the last combat use of American battleships[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy) • [11](https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/4366952/trump-announces-new-class-of-battleship/). The era closed on 31 March 1992 with the Missouri's final decommissioning[3](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy).
## After 1992
Several Iowa-class ships survive as museums, including Iowa herself at the [Port of Los Angeles](https://www.edgepedia.org/port-of-los-angeles), decommissioned in October 1990[12](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/ships-us/ships-usn-i/uss-iowa-bb-61.html/1000). In December 2025 the Navy announced a new "guided missile battleship," the future [USS Defiant](https://www.edgepedia.org/uss-defiant) (BBG 1), lead ship of a Trump class: roughly the length of an Iowa at about 35,000 tons, with a crew of 650 to 850, and missiles rather than large naval guns as its primary weapons, with design efforts underway and construction planned to begin in the early 2030s[10](https://apnews.com/article/0940368b39b19f03abe8689ebad08380) • [11](https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/4366952/trump-announces-new-class-of-battleship/).
## References
1. [The Steel Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/exploration-and-innovation/steel-navy.html)
2. [Battleships, Naval History and Heritage Command](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships.html)
3. [Paul Stillwell, "Sailors of the Battleship Navy," Naval History Magazine, February 2007](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/february/sailors-battleship-navy)
4. [Montana (BB-67), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, NHHC](https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/montana-bb67.html)
5. ["The Segue Ship," Naval History Magazine, February 2024](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2024/february/segue-ship)
6. ["The South Carolina Sisters: America's First Dreadnoughts," Naval History Magazine, February 2010](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2010/february/south-carolina-sisters-americas-first-dreadnoughts)
7. [Andrew K. Blackley, "The U.S. Navy's Three-Gun Turrets," Naval History, June 2025](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/june/us-navys-three-gun-turrets)
8. ["A Survey of the American 'Standard Type' Battleship," NavWeaps](https://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-071.php)
9. [Remembering Pearl Harbor, U.S. Department of Defense](https://www.defense.gov/multimedia/experience/remembering-pearl-harbor/)
10. ["Trump announces plans for new Navy 'battleship' as part of a 'Golden Fleet'," AP News, December 2025](https://apnews.com/article/0940368b39b19f03abe8689ebad08380)
11. ["Trump Announces New Class of Battleship," U.S. Navy Press Release](https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/4366952/trump-announces-new-class-of-battleship/)
12. [USS Iowa (BB-61), National Museum of the U.S. Navy, NHHC](https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/ships-us/ships-usn-i/uss-iowa-bb-61.html/1000)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Transport and spaceflight › Water transport › Warships and naval vessels › Battleships and capital ships*
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