USS Kentucky (BB-66)
 Kentucky under construction. The battleship was never completed. |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | September 9, 1940 |
| Keel laying | March 7, 1942 / December 6, 1944 |
| 1. Period of service |
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|
| Whereabouts | Construction stopped, hull broken off |
| Technical specifications | |
| planned | |
| displacement |
approx. 45,000 ts (standard); |
| length |
270.43 meters |
| width |
32.98 meters |
| Draft |
11.6 meters |
| crew |
2800 |
| drive |
4 steam turbines, on 4 propellers; 212,000 wave horsepower (158 MW ); 8 steam boilers |
| speed |
33 knots |
| Armament |
3 × triple towers 406 mm, 10 × twin mounts 127 mm, flak. |
The USS Kentucky (BB-66) was a United States Navy battleship whose construction was stopped at the end of World War II . She was to be the sixth and last Iowa class ship . The name is derived from the US state Kentucky .
After the keel was laid in 1942, construction was finally stopped after several interruptions in 1950. Plans to complete the three-quarters completed ship according to a new design with rocket armament also came to nothing in the following years. In 1958, equipment that had already been installed was removed from the fuselage, which was then sold and finally demolished.
technology
- Detailed information on the technology can be found in the class article under Iowa class .
The Kentucky belonged to the Iowa class and had the same dimensions and technical equipment of the four completed ships of the class shown, it would have been completed. The completed hull already had its final dimensions: a length of around 270 meters and a width of 33 meters. These dimensions were chosen according to the Panamax specification so that the battleships could fit into the locks of the Panama Canal and thus switch quickly between the Pacific and Atlantic. The water displacement of the Kentucky would have corresponded only on paper to the upper limit of 45,000 ts set at the London Naval Conference of 1936 ; with a full load it would have been around 58,000 ts instead. The drive system, consisting of four shafts each with one high and one low pressure steam turbine, was installed . At 33 knots, the Iowa-class ships were the fastest battleships ever. This was bought, however, with the waiver of further expansion of the armor compared to the previous class , which other navies, however, preferred.
The main artillery of the Kentucky should consist of nine guns of the caliber 16 inches (40.6 centimeters), which should be combined in two triplet turrets on the foredeck and another on the stern . With a range of up to 40 kilometers, these weapons could be used against sea and land targets. In addition, five multi-purpose twin guns of caliber 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) and numerous smaller anti-aircraft guns of caliber 40 and 20 millimeters were provided on each side of the deck superstructure . Two aircraft would have been stationed on board for reconnaissance flights.
history
planning
The first four Iowa battleships were approved in May 1938 and commissioned in July 1939 ( USS Iowa (BB-61) and USS New Jersey (BB-62) ) and approved in July 1939 and commissioned in June 1940 ( USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) ). BB-66 was officially commissioned in September 1940 together with BB-65 as the third two-pack in this class.
The United States Congress approved the construction of the two ships along with that of the Montana class in July 1940. The US Navy and President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to get this last package through Congress back in November 1939 after intelligence agencies reported the construction of a new class of eight Japanese battleships. Congress only approved the two Iowas and five Montanas after France surrendered and fears arose in the United States that England might fall too.
construction
Work on the Kentucky began with the keel laying on March 7, 1942 in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard . In June 1942, however, the part that had been completed by then, the floor slab of the engine room, was floated out of the dry dock and stored for over two years. The construction of tank landing ships had been given higher priority.
The official keel laying of the ship took place only after the resumption of construction on December 6, 1944, also in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard . At this point in time, the first ships of the class were already successfully deployed in the Pacific War . With support from the government and the US Navy, especially in the person of the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Ernest King , the construction of the Kentucky proceeded quickly. However, the surrender of Japan in August 1945 took away the need for a quick completion. The Illinois was immediately written off, the Kentucky continued to be built. Construction was not stopped until February 17, 1947.
A year and a half later, on August 17, 1948, construction was resumed; this happened at a time when three of the four finished Iowas were already withdrawn from the active fleet and mothballed. Construction was finally stopped on January 20, 1950, with construction progress of 73.1%. The hull, completed all the way up to the first deck, was launched to clear the dry dock for the Missouri , which had to be repaired after a violent agony. The cost to build was $ 55 million.
Whereabouts
The Kentucky was then towed to Newport News , Virginia and moored there. At that time there were considerations to complete it as an air defense battleship. Some of the large guns were to be replaced by anti-aircraft missiles and additional anti-aircraft cannons were to be added. At the same time, the remaining Iowas were reactivated to fight in the Korean War.
In 1955, the US Navy's Ship Characteristics Board actually decided to equip the Kentucky with RIM-2 Terrier , RIM-8 Talos, or RIM-24 Tartar anti-aircraft missiles and SSM-N-9 Regulus II surface -to-surface missiles . The cost was estimated at $ 130 million. Ultimately, these plans were not implemented, as were other projects that even saw a ballistic missile similar to the UGM-27 Polaris stationed on the Kentucky .
Instead, the hull was increasingly used as a spare parts store for the active ships of the class. In May or June 1956, the bow of the Kentucky was severed to around twenty meters and brought to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard by soul light . There he replaced the bow of the Wisconsin , which had been badly damaged in a collision with the destroyer USS Eaton (DD-510) . A new bow for the Kentucky was made and brought to the deck of the ship, but ultimately no longer attached.
On June 9, 1958, it was finally decided not to finish the Kentucky anymore. She was removed from the Naval Vessel Register and released for demolition. On October 31, 1958, it was sold to the Boston Metals Company , which paid around $ 1.2 million for it. In the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the four propulsion systems were removed beforehand. Many other parts were also removed and stored. The Kentucky was then towed to Baltimore , Maryland and broken off there.
The two fleet suppliers USS Sacramento (AOE-1) and USS Camden (AOE-2) , laid down in 1961 and 1964, each received two of the battleship's drive trains. When the New Jersey was reactivated for use in the Vietnam War in 1967 , equipment stored by the Kentucky from the Washington Navy Yard was also used to make the ship operational again.
literature
- Malcolm Muir: The Iowa Class Battleships: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri & Wisconsin. Blandford Press, Poole 1987, ISBN 0-7137-1732-7
Web links
- Entry of Kentucky in the Naval Vessel Register (Engl.)
- Gallery on navsource.org (Engl.)
