List of battleships of the United States Navy This list of battleship s of the United States Navy consists of all ships with the hull classification symbol " BB " . A number of these were started but never completed . All battleships have now been retired from service with the U . S . Navy . American battleships can be roughly divided into five types : coastal defense , pre - dreadnought , dreadnought , standard , and fast . Late 1800s – 1900s . " Maine " and " Texas " were part of the " New Navy " program of the 1880s . They , and BB - 1 to BB - 4 were authorized as " coast defense battleships " . The next group , BB - 5 " Kearsarge " through BB - 25 " New Hampshire " , followed general global pre - dreadnought design characteristics and entered service between 1900 and 1909 . The definitive American predreadnought was the penultimate class of the type , the " Connecticut " class , sporting the usual four - gun array of 12 " weapons , a very heavy intermediate and secondary battery , and a moderate tertiary battery . They were good sea boats and heavily armed and armored for their type . The final American pre - dreadnought class , the " Mississippi " - class second - class battleships , were a poorly thought out experiment in increasing numbers regardless of quality , and the USN quickly wished to replace them , doing so in 1914 , selling them to Greece to pay for a new super - dreadnought battleship , the new USS Idaho ( BB - 42 ) . The dreadnoughts , BB - 26 " South Carolina " through BB - 35 " Texas " , commissioned between 1910 and 1914 , uniformly possessed twin turrets , introduced the superimposed turret arrangement that would later become standard on all battleships , and had relatively heavy armor and moderate speed ( 19 – 21 knots ) . Five of the ten ships favored the more mature vertical triple expansion ( VTE ) propulsion over fuel - inefficient but faster direct - drive turbines . The ships possessed 8 ( " South Carolina " class ) , 10 ( " Delaware " and " Florida " ) or 12 ( " Wyoming " class ) 12 " guns , or 10 ( " New York " class ) 14 " guns . The dreadnoughts gave good service , the last two classes surviving through World War II before being scrapped . However , they had some faults that were never worked out , and the midships turrets in the ten and twelve - gun ships were located near boilers and high - pressure steam lines , a factor that made refrigeration very difficult and problematic in hot climates . One of their number , " Texas " ( BB - 35 ) , is the last remaining American battleship of the pre – World War II era and the only remaining dreadnought in the world . Next came the twelve Standards , beginning with BB - 36 " Nevada " . The last ship commissioned was BB - 48 " West Virginia " ( BB - 49 through 54 were also Standards , but were never commissioned , and scrapped under the Washington Naval Treaty ) , commissioned over the period 1914 to 1920 . " Oklahoma " ( BB - 37 ) was the last American battleship commissioned with triple expansion machinery ; all the other Standards used either geared steam turbines ( " Nevada " , the " Pennsylvania " s , " Idaho " and " Mississippi " ) or turbo - electric propulsion ( " New Mexico " , " Tennessee " through " West Virginia " ) . The Standards were a group of ships with four turrets , oil fuel , a 21 - knot top speed , a 700 yard tactical diameter at top speed , and heavy armor distributed on the " All or Nothing " principle . Armament was fairly consistent , starting with ten 14 " guns in the " Nevadas " , twelve in the " Pennsylvania " s , " New Mexico " s and " Tennessee " s , and eight 16 " guns in the " Colorado " s . Mid to late 1900s . After the 1930s " builders holiday , " the USN commissioned ten more battleships of an entirely new style , the so - called fast battleship . These ships began with BB - 55 " North Carolina " and the last ship laid down was BB - 66 " Kentucky " ( the last completed ship was BB - 64 " Wisconsin " ) . These ships were a nearly clean break from previous American design practices . All ten ships were built to a Panamax design ( technically post - Panamax , as they exceeded normal Panamax beam by two feet , but they were still able to transit the canal ) . They were fast battleships , and could travel with the aircraft carrier s at cruising speed ( their speed was not intended for that role , but rather so they could run down and destroy enemy battlecruiser s ) . They possessed almost completely homogenous main armament ( nine 16 " guns in each ship , the sole difference being an increase in length from 45 to 50 calibers with the " Iowa " class vessels ) , very high speed relative to other American designs ( 28 knots in the " North Carolina " and " South Dakota " classes , 33 in the " Iowa " class ) , and moderate armor . The " North Carolina " s were of particular concern , as their protection was rated as only " adequate " against the 16 " superheavy weapon . They had been designed with , and armored against , a battery of three quadruple 14 " guns , then changed to triple 16 " guns after the escalator clause in the Second London Naval Treaty had been triggered . Secondary in these ships was almost homogenous as well : Except for " South Dakota " , configured as a flagship , the other nine ships of this group sported a uniform 20 - gun 5 " secondary battery ( South Dakota deleted two 5 " mounts to make room for flag facilities ) . Visually , the World War II ships are distinguished by their triple - turret arrangement and the massive columnar mast that dominates their superstructure . The last ship , " Wisconsin " ( BB - 64 ) , commissioned in 1944 ( " Wisconsin " was approved last ; however , " Missouri " commissioned 3 months later , due to delays from additional aircraft carrier construction ) . " Missouri " ( BB - 63 ) , famous for being the ship on which the Japanese instrument of surrender was signed , was the last battleship in the world to decommission on 31 March 1992 . Seven of these ten ships are still in existence . " South Dakota , " " Washington " and " Indiana " were scrapped , but the remainder are now museum ships . There was intended to be another class of five of these ships , the " Montana " class ( BB - 67 " Montana " through BB - 71 " Louisiana " ) , but they were canceled before being laid down in favor of a greater number of aircraft carrier s . The " Montana " class ships would have been built to a 60 , 000 - ton post - Panamax design , and carried a greater number of guns ( 12x 16 " ) and heavier armor than the other ships ; otherwise they would have been homogenous with the rest of the World War II battleships . In October 2006 , the last battleships , ( USS " Iowa " and USS " Wisconsin " ) , were stricken from the Naval Registry . Ship list . Except for " Kearsarge " , named by an act of Congress , all American battleships have been named for states , and every state has had at least one battleship named for it except Alaska and Hawaii . They did not become states until 1959 , after the end of battleship building , although the " battlecruiser " or Large Cruiser was built during World War II and her sister was begun but never completed . Two battleships have been authorized to be named for Montana , but both were canceled before commissioning . The pre - dreadnoughts USS " Zrinyi " ( formerly the Austrian SMS " Zrínyi " ) , USS " Radetzky " ( formerly the Austrian SMS " Radetzky " ) , and USS " Ostfriesland " ( formerly the German SMS " Ostfriesland " ) , taken as prizes of war after World War I , were commissioned in the US Navy , but were not assigned hull classification symbol s . No American battleship has ever been lost at sea , though exploded in port , and four battleships were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor . Of these , only and were permanently destroyed as a result of enemy action . Several other battleships have been sunk as targets , and the , demilitarized and converted into a target and training ship , was permanently destroyed at Pearl Harbor .