This article describes a class of six battleships from the 1920s. For the four South Dakota-class battleships of World War II, see South-Dakota-class (1942) .
The South Dakota class was six United States Navy battleships that were laid down in 1920 but never completed. They were the last ships that should belong to the super dreadnought generation . They would have been the largest, most heavily armored, and most heavily armed ships in the US Navy at the time. However, the work was set with the conclusion of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922; a year later the battleships were canceled.
The South Dakota class ships had their origins in the Naval Act of 1916. Although they were ordered on March 4, 1917, the keel laying was delayed for three more years. There were two main reasons for this: on the one hand, the greatest danger in the North Atlantic came from German submarines, which is why the production of destroy had priority; on the other hand, the Skagerrak battle had a significant impact on battleship construction, which also affected the designs of the South Dakota class were. In the five previously completed classes, the US Navy followed the "Standard Type Battleship" concept, i. This means that all of these ships had roughly identical dimensions, displacement, speed and numerous components (e.g. standardized bridges and lattice masts). This simplified the joint use of the battleships, since it was not necessary to develop separate maneuvering concepts for each class. Since new battleships were developed in Japan and Great Britain after the First World War (e.g. the N3 class ), the US Navy wanted the South Dakota class to remain appropriately competitive. The performance, dimensions and displacement required for this, however, were no longer compatible with the specifications of the “Standard Type Battleship” concept, which is why these restrictions were abandoned. The only limitation that the US Navy still had to adhere to with the new ships was that the ships should be able to pass the Panama Canal .
The construction of the ships did not finally begin until 1920. With the conclusion of the Washington Fleet Treaty, construction was stopped on February 8, 1922 for all six battleships. This was part of the contract, which stipulated a ten-year construction freeze for all capital ships. This also limited the maximum displacement to 35,000 t, which the South Dakota class would have significantly exceeded. Therefore, the unfinished hulls were scrapped in 1923. The 40.6 cm L / 50 Mark 2 cannons that had already been manufactured were used by the US Army as coastal artillery. They later served as a template for the new Mark 7 cannons of the same caliber of the Iowa class .
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