USS Kentucky ( BB - 66 ) USS " Kentucky " ( BB - 66 ) was an uncompleted battleship originally intended to be the sixth and final member of the constructed for the United States Navy . At the time of her construction she was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U . S . state of Kentucky . Hull BB - 66 was originally to be the second ship of the . However , the U . S . Navy ' s experiences in World War II led it to conclude that it required more fast battleship s to escort the new s that were being built . As a result , " Kentucky " was reordered as an " Iowa " - class battleship midway through the war . Like her sister ship , " Kentucky " was still under construction at the end of hostilities and was caught up in the post - war draw - down of the armed services . Her construction was suspended twice , during which times she served as a spare parts cache of sorts . In the 1950s , there were several proposals to complete the ship as a guided missile battleship . These were abandoned primarily due to cost concerns , and " Kentucky " ultimately was sold for scrap in 1958 . Background . " Kentucky " was one of the " fast battleship " designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair . She was to be the sixth and final ship of the of battleship s . Like her " Iowa " - class sisters , " Kentucky " s construction began in response to the need for fast escorts for the s . She was conceived in 1935 , when the United States Navy initiated design studies for the creation of an extended that was not restricted by the Second London Naval Treaty . The latter four " Iowa " - class battleships ( " Missouri " , " Wisconsin " , " Illinois " and " Kentucky " ) were not cleared for construction until 12 July 1940 , and at the time " Illinois " and " Kentucky " were to be larger , slower battleships mounting twelve Mark 7 guns . Construction . " Kentucky " s main battery would have consisted of nine / 50 cal Mark 7 gun s , which could hurl armor - piercing shells some . Her secondary battery would have consisted of 20 / 38 cal gun s arranged in 10 gun turrets , which could fire at targets up to away . With the advent of air power and the mandate to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of Allied aircraft carriers . To this end , " Kentucky " was to be fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti - aircraft guns to defend allied carriers from enemy airstrikes . Because the " Iowa " - class torpedo defense was virtually the same as the preceding " South Dakota " - class battleships it was proposed that " Kentucky " s hull be redesigned to provide a greater degree of torpedo protection for the battleship . Under the original construction schematics for the class each side of the ship was protected below the waterline by two tanks mounted outside the belt armor , and separated by a bulkhead . These tanks were initially planned to be empty , but in practice were filled with water or fuel oil . The armored belt tapered to a thickness of below the waterline . Behind the armored belt there was a void , and then another bulkhead . The outer hull was intended to detonate a torpedo , with the outer two compartments absorbing the shock and with any splinters or debris being stopped by the armored belt and the empty compartment behind it . In 1939 the Navy discovered that this system was considerably less effective than earlier torpedo defense systems , and as such the intended construction format for " Kentucky " would have addressed this problem by providing a 20 % improvement to the torpedo defense of the battleship while simultaneously reducing flooding in the event of a torpedo strike . Despite providing additional torpedo defense for " Kentucky " the records are unclear on the matter of whether or not the idea was actually adopted . " Kentucky " s construction was plagued by suspensions . Her keel was laid down at the Norfolk Navy Yard , Portsmouth , Virginia , on 7 March 1942 . However , work on the ship was suspended in June that year , and " Kentucky " s bottom structure was launched to make room for LST construction on 10 June . While her construction was suspended , the Bureau of Ships considered an aircraft carrier conversion proposal for " Kentucky " and " Illinois " in the aftermath of the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway . As proposed , the converted " Kentucky " would have had an long by wide flight deck , with armament identical to the carriers of the : four twin 5 - inch gun mounts and four more 5 - inch guns in single mounts , along with six 40 mm quadruple mounts . The idea was abandoned after the Bureau of Ships decided that the converted ships would carry fewer aircraft than the " Essex " class , that more " Essex " - class carriers could be built in the same amount of time , and that the conversion project would be significantly more expensive than new " Essex " es . Instead , " Kentucky " and " Illinois " were to be completed as battleships , but their construction was given very low priority . Work on the ship resumed on 6 December 1944 , when the keel structure was returned to the slipway . Work on the battleship proceeded at a slow pace , and her completion was projected for the third quarter of 1946 . In December 1945 it was recommended that " Kentucky " be completed as an anti - aircraft battleship , and work on the ship was suspended in August 1946 while this was considered . Construction resumed again on 17 August 1948 without any decision having been made on her final design . Work on " Kentucky " continued until 20 January 1950 , when it was decided to halt work on the ship . Following this , she was floated out of her drydock to clear a space for repairs to sister ship , which had run aground en route from Hampton Roads . Guided missile battleship . As early as 1946 , missile conversion projects for " Kentucky " and the incomplete large cruiser were discussed . In the early 1950s , the advances in guided missile technology led to a proposal to create a large warship armed with both guns and missiles . To this end , the incomplete " Kentucky " was chosen for conversion from an all gun ship into a " guided missile battleship " . This proposal would have been relatively conservative , and would have involved the installation of a pair of twin arm launchers for the RIM - 2 Terrier surface - to - air missile ( SAM ) on the aft deckhouse , with a pair of antennas for the associated AN / APG - 55 pulse doppler interception radar installed forward of these , and the AN / SPS - 2B air search radar on a short mast . Since the battleship was already approximately 73 % complete ( construction had been halted at the main deck ) , installation of the missile system and associated electronics would have involved only adding the necessary equipment without any need to rebuild the ship to accommodate the system . The guided missile battleship project was authorized in 1954 , and " Kentucky " was renumbered from BB - 66 to BBG - 1 , with the conversion due to be complete in 1956 . However , the project was soon cancelled , with the conversion ideas transferred to a smaller platform that led to the guided missile cruiser . Another conversion project in early 1956 called for the installation of two Polaris ballistic missile launchers with a capacity for sixteen weapons . She would also be equipped with four RIM - 8 Talos SAM launchers with eighty missiles per launcher and twelve RIM - 24 Tartar SAM launchers with 504 missiles . A July 1956 estimate projected completing the ship by July 1961 , but the cost of the conversion ultimately forced the Navy to abandon the project . Fate . " Kentucky " was never completed , instead serving as a supply cache of sorts while in the mothball fleet at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from about 1950 to 1958 . Hurricane Hazel hit the area on 15 October 1954 ; the storm caused " Kentucky " to break free from her moorings and run aground in the Delaware River . In 1956 , " Kentucky " s bow was removed and used in the repair of , which had been damaged in a collision with on 6 May 1956 . Congressman William Huston Natcher attempted to block the sale of the ship by objecting to the bill in August 1957 . Nevertheless , " Kentucky " was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 June 1958 and her incomplete hulk was sold for scrapping to Boston Metals Company of Baltimore , Maryland , on 31 October . Boston Metals Company paid $ 1 , 176 , 666 for the vessel , and towed her to their shipyard in Baltimore in February 1959 . When the first two of the s , and , were laid down in 1961 and 1964 , the builders used " Kentucky " s four turbine sets to power the ships . This would later prove to be a beneficial decision : when the navy switched from 600 psi ( 4 . 1 MPa ) boilers to 1 , 200 psi ( 8 . 3 MPa ) boilers , sailors who had served aboard " Sacramento " and " Camden " were posted to operate the older boilers aboard during her combat tour in the Vietnam War and aboard all four of the " Iowa " s when they were recalled and modernized in the 1980s as part of the 600 - ship Navy plan . A pair of mahogany doors were donated by the state of Kentucky while the ship was still under construction ; they were used in an officer ' s club in New York City before eventually being returned to the Kentucky Historical Society in early January 1994 . References . Bibliography . Print sources Online sources