Iowa-Class Battleship

The Iowa class is a class of American fast battleships, the last battleships the United States Navy ever built, with the lead ship USS Iowa commissioned in February 1943 during the Second World War, designed to combine heavy armor and a powerful main battery of nine 16-inch guns with a top speed fast enough to operate alongside the fleet's aircraft carriers rather than trailing behind as earlier, slower battleships did. Four ships of the class were completed, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and Wisconsin, and USS Missouri holds particular historical significance as the site of Japan's formal surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay in September 1945, ending the Second World War. Uniquely among major navies' battleships, the Iowa-class ships were repeatedly reactivated for later conflicts after 1945, serving in the Korean War, and again modernized with cruise missiles and returned to active service during the 1980s before their final decommissioning, giving the class an operational history spanning roughly half a century.