The Amagi class was a series of four battlecruisers planned for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the early 1920s. Limitations imposed by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty prevented the class from being completed as designed. The treaty had a limited allowance for hulls already under construction to be converted into aircraft carriers. Amagi and Akagi were both intended for conversion, but an earthquake damaged the hull of Amagi so extensively that the ship was scrapped. Akagi was reconstructed as an aircraft carrier and served with distinction as part of the Kido Butai during the Second World War.
About Amagi-class battlecruiser in brief
The Amagi class was a series of four battlecruisers planned for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the early 1920s. The ships were to be named Amagi, Akagi, Atago, and Takao. Limitations imposed by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty prevented the class from being completed as designed. However, the treaty had a limited allowance for hulls already under construction to be converted into aircraft carriers. Amagi and Akagi were both intended for conversion, but an earthquake damaged the hull of Amagi so extensively that the ship was scrapped. Akagi was reconstructed as an aircraft carrier and served with distinction as part of the Kido Butai during the Second World War, participating in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor before being sunk at the Battle of Midway. The Amagi design was essentially a lengthened version of the Tosa-class battleship, but with a thinner armored belt and deck, and a more powerful propulsion system. They were to have carried the same main battery of ten 41 cm guns and been capable of a top speed of 30 knots. The ships had a planned displacement of 41,217 tonnes and 47,000 t at full load. The class design was 250 m long at the waterline, and 251. 8 m overall. The main battery barbettes were designed to have between 230–280 mm of armor plating, and the conning tower would have had armor ranging in thickness from 75 mm to a maximum of 360 mm.
Deck armor was to have been 95 mm thick. In 1907, Japan was halfway to the eight-eight fleet, with two battleships and four armored cruisers under construction. In the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Defence Council approved an \”Eight-eight\” policy. This plan originally called for a fleet of eight old battleship and eight armored cruising cruisers that would be under ten years old. However the advent of the dreadnought battleship crippled this plan at the beginning of the war, and given Japan’s weak and underdeveloped economy the enormous strain that had been put on it during the Russo War. In addition to the newly delivered battleships, Japan authorized the construction of three more battleships; two more cruisers and two more armored cruiser or four battleships under construction; and four more battleship or four armored cruisers under delivery in the 1920s and 1930s. It was planned that the Amagi class would be protected by a main belt 250 mm thick, sloped at 12 degrees and a torpedo bulkhead 73 mm thick. The ship would have used four propeller shafts, powered by Gihon steam turbines. The planned fuel stores amounted to 3,900 tons and 2,500 tons of coal. With full fuel stores, the ships would have have had a maximum range of 8,000 nautical miles.
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