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USS ''Missouri'' (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is a United States Navy and was the third ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the US state of Missouri. ''Missouri'' was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II. ''Missouri'' was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991. ''Missouri'' received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS ''Missouri'' Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. == Construction == ''Missouri'' was one of the "fast battleship" designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941, launched on 29 January 1944 and commissioned on 11 June with Captain William Callaghan in command. The ship was the third of the ''Iowa'' class, but the fourth and final ''Iowa''-class ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy.〔At the time ''Missouri'' was commissioned two other ''Iowa''-class battleships– and –were under construction, and the United States Navy had commissioned plans for the s; however, ''Illinois'' and ''Kentucky'' were canceled before their construction had been completed, and the ''Montana''s were suspended and ultimately canceled before any of their hulls were laid down.〕〔Internationally, there were two other battleships that came after ''Missouri'': the British battleship , the final battleship constructed by the Royal Navy, and the French battleship ''Jean Bart''.〕 The ship was christened at her launching by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, then a United States Senator from Missouri. ''Missouri''s main battery consisted of nine s, which could fire armor-piercing shells some . Her secondary battery consisted of twenty s in twin turrets, with a range of about . With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of allied aircraft carriers; to this end, ''Missouri'' was fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns to defend allied carriers from enemy airstrikes. When reactivated in 1984 ''Missouri'' had her 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns removed, and was outfitted with Phalanx CIWS mounts for protection against enemy missiles and aircraft, and Armored Box Launchers and Quad Cell Launchers designed to fire Tomahawk missiles and Harpoon missiles, respectively. ''Missouri'' was the last U.S. battleship to be completed.〔〔''Wisconsin'' was commissioned on 16 April 1944 (See: (WISCONSIN (BB 64) ) in the Naval Vessel Register) while ''Missouri'' was commissioned on 11 June 1944 (See: (MISSOURI (BB 63) ) in the Naval Vessel Register).〕 , the highest-numbered U.S. battleship built, was completed before ''Missouri''; BB-65 to BB-71 were ordered but cancelled. 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「USS Missouri (BB-63)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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