USS Iowa (BB-61) is a retired battleship, the lead ship of her class, and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. Owing to the cancellation of the Montana-class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships and was the only ship of her class to serve in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.
In action against North Korean industrial and rail transportation center at Chongjin. Not since the USS MISSOURI bombarded Chongjin in November 1950, had a battleship operated that far north, just forty-eight miles from the Russian border. The USS IOWA effectively destroyed Chongjinâs industrial center.
The Iowa class battleships main guns were 16â bore diameter. These guns were 50 calibers longâor 50 times their 16-inch (406 mm) bore diameter, which makes the barrels 66.7 ft long, from chamber to muzzle. Each gun weighed about 239,000 lb without the breech, and 267,900 lb with the breech. They fired projectiles weighing from 1,900 to 2,700 lb at a maximum speed of 2,690 feet per second with a range of up to 24 mi. At maximum range the projectile spent almost 1½ minutes in flight. Each turret required a crew of 79 men to operate. The turrets themselves cost US$1.4 million each, to which the cost of the guns had to be added.
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