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Oklahoma Class Battleships
The Oklahoma class battleship was a series of four battleships of the United States Navy which served during the Global War. These ships introduced the all-or nothing concept in armouring. It was reasoned that light armour will only initiate fuses for shells to explode rather than actually defeating the projectile. These ships had 'soft ends' while the armour was concentrated in the belt and turrets. A twelve gun armed ship was proposed with a mix of twin and triple turrets but this was rejected in favor of a full dual turret design. Pennsylvania was the testbed for Electric drive.
The class marked a significant growth over its predecessor–the Florida class–of some 20% in size. This allowed the addition of a sixth main turret and increased armor. This brought the class' main armament up to twelve 14 inch guns in their twin mounts.
All ships were commissioned during September 1914. All ships served in the Global War, and like many older American ships were quickly retired at the end of the second. All ships of the class were sold to foreign navies in 1943, with the Pennsylvania and the Georgia being sold to China and the North Dakota and the Oklahoma to South Mexico. The ships served for close to thirty more years for that nation's fleets, with the SMNS Veracruz (formerly the Oklahoma) finally put to rest in 1972.
Ships
General Characteristics
Displacement: 31,200 tons Length: 600 feet Beam: 97 feet Draft: 28.2 feet Speed: 21 knots Armament: twelve 14-inch(6×2), 12 five-inch, two 21-inch torpedo tubes.