Alaska-class cruiser
The Alaska class was a class of six large cruisers ordered before World War II for the United States Navy. Of the six planned, two were completed, the third’s construction was suspended on 16 April 1947, and the last three were cancelled. The idea for a large cruiser class originated in the early 1930s when the U.S. Navy sought to counter Deutschland-class \”pocket battleships\” being launched by Germany.
About Alaska-class cruiser in brief
The Alaska class was a class of six large cruisers ordered before World War II for the United States Navy. Of the six planned, two were completed, the third’s construction was suspended on 16 April 1947, and the last three were cancelled. The idea for a large cruiser class originated in the early 1930s when the U.S. Navy sought to counter Deutschland-class \”pocket battleships\” being launched by Germany. They were given large guns of a new and expensive design, limited armor protection against 12-inch shells, and machinery capable of speeds of about 31–33 knots. The final design was a scaled-up Baltimore class that had the same machinery as the Essex-class aircraft carriers. The Alaskas were officially funded in September 1940 along with a plethora of other ships as a part of the Two-Ocean Navy Act. Their role had been altered slightly: in addition to their surface-to-surface role, they were planned to protect carrier groups. Because of their bigger guns, greater size and increased speed, they would be more valuable in this role than heavy cruisers and would provide insurance against Japanese super cruisers more powerful than the US Navy. The class was decommissioned in 1947 after spending only 32 and 29 months in service, respectively. One historian described the design process of the Alaska class as ‘torturous’ due to the numerous changes and modifications made to the ship’s layouts by numerous departments and individuals. There were at least nine different layouts, ranging from 6,000-ton Atlanta-class anti-aircraft cruisers to ‘overgrown’ heavy cruiser.
Yet another drastic change was the conversion of the Iowa-class battleships into light aircraft carriers in late 1941, when the Navy realized that they needed more aircraft carriers as quickly as possible. In the end, they chose the Clevelands, even though many of the similarities between the Alaska and Independence-class cruisers was attractive because they were so similar to one of the Cleveland-class ships. The conversion resulted in the resulting conversion of nine ships under construction at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in the end of the 1940s, resulting in the creation of the Ohio-class carriers in the 1950s. The ships were all named after territories or insular areas of the United states, signifying their intermediate status between larger battleships and smaller heavy and light cruisers. They would have been armed with a main armament of nine 12- inch guns with protection against 10-inch gunfire into a hull that was capable of 33 knots. This ship combined a mainArmament of 912-inch guns with Protection against 10,inch gunfire. The ship would have had a 38,000 ton mini-battleship that was armed with twelve 12- inches and sixteen 5-inch Guns. The Alaska class would have provided insurance against Japan’s super-cruiser program, which was considered during the late 1930s and early 1940s. It would also have provided more protection against torpedoes and shells that fell short of the ship.
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This page is based on the article Alaska-class cruiser published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 23, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
