These treaties limited the size, armanent, and the aggregate tonnage of the world's ships. US Navy intelligence had reached the unfortunate conclusion that Japan and Germany might very well dump everything agreed to in previous arms limitation treaties such as the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, the London Naval Treaty of 1936. It was in this environment that designers and policy makers within the Navy Department conceived the Iowa-class battleships.Įven though many people recognized that battleships were becoming obsolete and that aircraft carriers were more important, America's disadvantage in battleship design was not an easy concept to ignore.

Specifically, friend and foe alike had outclassed the Navy's battleship inventory and by the late 1930's, the Navy realized that it faced many nightmarish 'what if' situations.

These are situations where there is a small chance that the enemy could do something that will turn the tide of a future war against your forces.

Much of war planning is based on 'what if?' scenarios. As the United States crept ever more closely to officially entering the Second World War, its Navy faced some major problems with its ship inventory. The Iowa class design was conceived in an era of crisis. 'I cannot acquiesce in a complete cessation of BB construction,' he commented to President Franklin Roosevelt. Ernest King vetoed the carrier idea and instead pushed for accelerated construction of the Iowa-class due to their well-balanced design. Their plan called for the battleships to be converted into a similar size carrier as the Essex-class. This opinion gain more momentum because of the vulnerability of battleships as shown by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Instead, they advocated converting the hulls into aircraft carriers a la Saratoga (CV-2) and Lexington (CV-3). The designers of the Iowa class attempted to produce a design that made no such sacrifices.Įven though the design was very remarkable, some policy analysts were not sold on that the United States needed more the idea that the United States needed more battleships. Previous battleships had to give up performance in either speed, armor, or firepower in order to achieve better results in the other two. These were among the most powerful warship ever assembled.

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