page_title: Armament of the Iowa-class battleship
section_title: Anti-aircraft batteries
hierarchical_section_title: Armament of the Iowa-class battleship / Anti-aircraft batteries
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Iowa (BB-61) 20mm gun crew in action on the battleship's forecastle, probably during her shakedown period in the late winter and spring of 1943. Note gunner using the Mark 14 lead-computing gunsight mounted on the 20mm gun at right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
context_page_description: The Iowa-class battleships were the most heavily armed gunships the United States Navy has ever put to sea due to the continual development of their onboard weaponry. The first Iowa-class ship was laid down in June 1940; in their World War II configuration, each of the Iowa-class battleships had a main battery of 16-inch guns that could hit targets nearly 20 statute miles away with a variety of artillery shells designed for anti-ship or bombardment work. The secondary battery of 5-inch guns could hit targets nearly 9 statute miles away with solid projectiles or proximity fuzed shells, and were effective in an anti-aircraft role as well. Each of the four battleships carried a wide array of 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns for defense against enemy aircraft.
  When reactivated and modernized in the 1980s each battleship retained the original battery of nine 16-inch guns, but the secondary battery on each battleship was reduced from ten twin-gun mounts and twenty guns to six twin-gun mounts with 12 guns to allow for the installation of two platforms for the Tomahawk missiles.
context_section_description: Since they were designed to escort the US fleet of fast attack aircraft carriers, the Iowa-class battleships were all intended to carry a fearsome array of anti-aircraft guns to protect US aircraft carriers from Japanese fighters and dive bombers. This array included up to 20 quad 40 mm mounts and 49 single 20 mm mounts. In the 1968 USS New Jersey re-activation for service off Vietnam, the 20 mm and 40 mm batteries were removed. In the 1980s re-activation, all the ships with 20 mm and 40 mm batteries had them removed, and four Phalanx CIWS mounts were added to all.
caption: An Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun aboard the battleship USS Iowa.
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