USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is currently a museum ship. Completed in 1944, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Philippines campaign and the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The battleship shelled the Japanese home islands shortly before the end of the war in September 1945. During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned. She was reactivated in 1986; after a modernization program, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in January – February 1991.
Wisconsin at sea, c. 1990
Wisconsin during her initial sea trials in mid-1944
Wisconsin tied up alongside the hulk of the salvaged battleship Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor in November 1944, prior to her departure to join up with the 3rd Fleet
Wisconsin escorting Essex-class aircraft carriers during World War II
The Iowa class was a class of six fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940. They were initially intended to intercept fast capital ships such as the Japanese Kongō class and also serve as the "fast wing" in a traditional battle line alongside slower battleships. The Iowa class was designed to meet the Second London Naval Treaty's "escalator clause" limit of 45,000-long-ton (45,700 t) standard displacement. Beginning in August 1942, four vessels, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin, were completed; two more, Illinois and Kentucky, were laid down but canceled in 1945 and 1958, respectively, before completion, and both hulls were scrapped in 1958–1959.
USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside on 15 August 1984 during a firepower demonstration after her recommissioning
USS Iowa in World War II configuration and wearing Measure 32 Design 1B camouflage pattern, c. 1944.
USS Iowa fires a full broadside of nine 16-inch and six 5-inch guns during a gunnery exercise
16"/50 gun projectile with six propellant bags (display) aboard USS Iowa (BB-61)