USS New Jersey Battle Ship

THE IOWA CLASS

New Jersey was the second of the four Iowas. She was laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 September 1940, launched on 7 December 1942 and completed on 23 May 1943. She saw action in the Pacific, sinking one ship (a minesweeping trawler), downing many aircraft, keeping many smaller ships replenished and bombarding targets ashore. In June 1948 she was laid up but was recommissioned in November 1951 to take part in the Korean War. Paid off again in August 1957, she was reactivated once more in April 1968 for just 20 months. She was recommissioned again in the last days of 1982, but as of 12 February 1998 she was back in reserve and out of commission, this time probably for good. It is almost certain that the New Jersey will become a museum in the state for which she is named.

KOREA, VIETNAM AND LEBANON

The second time New Jersey was commissioned, it was to carry out shore bombardment against targets in Korea, and her short third activation, during the Vietnam War, was definitely a case of too little, too late. In late 1982, however, she was back in service with new radar and electronic warfare systems, and equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Phalanx close-in weapons systems and Harpoon and Standard surface-to-air missiles, but she was still reliant on her 16in (406mm) guns. In 1983 she went to the eastern Mediterranean to support US Marines in Beirut. Although she was in active service, New Jersey played no part in the Gulf War of 1991; that was left to her sister-ships Missouri and Wisconsin.

TECHNICAL DATA

Type: Battleship
Machinery: 4-shaft General Electric turbines giving a total of 212,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 270.5m (887.25ff), beam, 32.95rn (108.2ff)
Draught: 11 m (36.2ft) at full load