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The ''New Mexico''-class battleships of the United States Navy, all three of whose construction began in 1915, were improvements on the design introduced three years earlier with the . The twelve-gun main battery of the preceding was retained, but with longer 50 caliber guns in improved triple turrets. Hull design was also upgraded with a 'clipper' bow for better seakeeping and a sleeker look. One ship, the , was fitted with turbo-electric propulsion. Though eight secondary batteries were located in extremely wet bow and stern positions and were soon removed, the rest of the ships' guns were mounted in the superstructure, a great improvement over earlier U.S. Navy battleships' arrangements. ==Class history== Completed during and soon after World War I, the ''New Mexico''s were active members of the Battle Fleet during the decades between the World Wars. All were rebuilt between 1931 and 1934, receiving entirely new superstructures, modern controls for their guns, new engines and improved protection against air and surface attack. Anti-torpedo bulges increased their width to and displacement went up by a thousand tons or more. The ''New Mexico'' class was part of the standard-type battleship concept of the U.S. Navy, a design concept which gave the Navy a homogeneous line of battle (it allowed planning maneuvers for the whole line of battle rather than detaching "fast" and "slow" wings). The standard-type battleship concept included long-range gunnery, moderate speed of , a tight tactical radius of and improved damage control. The other standard-type battleships were the , , , and es. In order to counter the German threat, these ships—operating together as Battleship Division 3—were transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 1941, leaving the U.S. Pacific Fleet inferior in battleship strength to the Japanese Navy. Sent back to the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor raid devastated the Pacific Fleet's powerful battle line, they were active in the war with Japan until final victory was achieved in August 1945. Their heavy guns provided vital assistance to the many amphibious invasions that marked the Pacific conflict, and ''Mississippi'' took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last time in history that battleships fought each other. ''New Mexico'' and ''Idaho'' were disposed of soon after the war ended, but ''Mississippi'' was converted to a training and weapons trials ship and served for another decade. The U.S. Navy's first generation of ship-launched guided missiles went to sea aboard this old former battleship. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New Mexico-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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