USS Missouri (BB-63)

The Missouri, as seen in-game

* Base
* Top

USS Missouri (BB-63) is an American Battleship featured in Modern Warships. It's one of the best ships with the main cannon, interchangeable missiles, and a good helicopter, also it has very good air defense!

## Background History

USS Missouri, (Also known as The Mighty Mo), is an Iowa-Class battleship laid down in 1940. Launched in 1944, Missouri was the last battleship ever commissioned. While her sister, USS Wisconsin, had been laid down later than the Missouri, Wisconsin was commissioned before Missouri was. Missouri participated in WW2, and is known to be the site of the Japanese surrender in 1945. She was recommissioned a few years later in the 1950s and 1980s after undergoing modernization; which Missouri had her 20mm AA, 40mm AA and her ten 5-inch gun (in-game only have 6) removed and replaced with more advance weaponry (This is not shown in the game). Serving in the Korean War, and the Persian Gulf War. She is currently one the most famous battleships in the world. In addition, she is currently docked at Pearl Harbor as a museum ship, facing the wreck of the legendary USS Arizona.

## Overview

In many aspects, the Missouri behaves like a modernized Yamato, yet even after the modifications, it still retains its prime characteristics of a battleship; dealing significant damage whilst taking an overwhelming outpouring of artillery fire. It's big, it's chunky, and its old. But those who firmly believe that the battleship as a concept is dead and or underestimate the ship due to the preeminence of carriers would be in for a nasty surprise. Recent buff's to Missouri has brought her gun damage more in line with Yamato (Capable of 100,000 stock) and the accuracy has been improved along with all other battleships, making it even easier to snipe carriers from across the map.

## Tactics

### **Playing as a Missouri**

Armed with old but quality guns, the Mighty Mo is still more than ready to see more action in the oceans.

Like any responsible captain would know, rushing straight into the center of the map all alone is utter foolishness and calling for trouble. Survivability and longevity are key to maximizing utility on this ship.

Firstly, assess the battlefield for any submarines and aircraft carriers. If any of them are present, seek the cover of allies immediately. Your AA defenses while objectively impressive (4 slots plus bofors quadro) they will not save you from a swarm of angry missiles due to your bloated size and low mobility. The lack of ASW defense aside from your stock Swarmer missiles makes you a very enticing target for enemy submarines. Even with that in mind, do not be discouraged to attack. Destroyers and cruisers will get vaporized from this ship's firepower, while other battleships and vulnerable aircraft carriers might see themselves in a harrowing struggle. Attack carefully, aim your shot slightly ahead when dealing with fast ships.

It is highly recommended to let your teammates scout out enemy carriers. This way if you have visual on them you can snipe them from across the map and they cant do anything about it as CIWS cannot intercept guns. The large size and sluggish nature of carriers also make this work even easier. Ripple firing between your 127mm and 406mm main guns will quickly deplete even the tankiest of ships in a very short time and high damage missiles can help facilitate a more rapid trip to davy jones locker for said ship. And always remember that unlike 98% of the ships in this game, you can NOT turn while sitting still.

### **Playing alongside a Missouri**

Allied ships play a large role in enhancing the ship's impact to the whole match. Battleships being the capital ships they are, rightfully deserve a proper battle group to go into battle with. Destroyers and other surface ships provide additional damage and help augment the ships relatively poor AA defenses, helping to overwhelm enemy defenses through sheer output of missiles and steel while also repulsing any attempts at an air raid by putting up a sky full of flak that would quickly tear through any squadron or bombers.

Submarines can help fend off other hostile submarines that threaten the ship and at Tier III, they are capable of sending a overwhelming storm of missiles in a short period of time, forcing enemies to make the choice of either prioritizing defense and running down their stock of chaff and flares or risk getting sunk trying to prioritize the battleship.

### **Playing against a Missouri**

Even with all its abilities, the *Missouri* is not without seams. The ship has a relatively poor anti air defense for its tier and size, and has slightly less durability than the *Yamato* and a few other carriers. The Missouri is extremely vulnerable to air strikes and submarines, as they have the capability of closing within the AA bubble around it before launching their payloads, giving them no time to destroy or use countermeasures on the incoming threats. However, getting there is the main issue as unless the Missouri player is either a Noob or their team is really bad, you should expect at least one or more escorts around the ship making life hard for you.

## Suggested Armaments Setup

The ship, with its flexible armaments setup, can be armed with various weapons that will furthermore improve the ship's performance. Below are some suggested weapons setup. But, bear in mind that these are just suggestions.

Unlike the other ships in the game, some of the armaments are locked and cannot be replaced.

**For Level 15 to 19 players:**

* First Missile Slot: RUM-139 Swarmer, Mk-2/E, or P-700 Granit.
* Second Missile Slot: RUM-139 Swarmer, Mk-2/E. (Generally advised to carry Swarmers for at least some ASW defense)
* Anti-air defense: Kashtan-M, Sea RAM.
* Helicopter: WZ-19 CAIC, SV-22, Kamov Ka-XX (if obtained via battlepass).

**For Level 20 to 24 players:**

* First Missile Slot: DF-17, YJ-21, X-51 Waverider (Ignores flares, can be used while main gun is reloading), Zircon (if obtained).
* Second Missile Slot: DF-17, YJ-21, X-51 Waverider (Ignores flares, can be used while main gun is reloading), Zircon (if obtained).
* Anti-air defense: Pantsir-ME, THEL/HEL (if obtained via battlepass, and HEL is better than THEL).
* Helicopter: WZ-19 CAIC, SV-22, Kamov Ka-XX (if obtained via battlepass).

**For Level +25 players:**

* First Missile Slot: SCALP Naval, X-51 Waverider (Ignores flares, can be used while main gun is reloading), Zircon (if obtained).
* Second Missile Slot SCALP Naval, X-51 Waverider (Ignores flares, can be used while main gun is reloading), Zircon (if obtained), SM-6 (For air defense and damage, effectively SCALP that can double as AA, especially effective against bombers.)
* Anti-air defense: Garpun, THEL/HEL (if obtained via battlepass), Excalibur laser.
* Helicopter: WZ-19 CAIC, SV-22, Kamov Ka-XX (if obtained via battlepass), MUH-1 Marineon.

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages.

* Unlike the *Yamato*, the ship comes equipped with missiles, allowing for long-range strikes, and allowing to hit agile vessels that would otherwise be impossible to hit.
* Powerful guns, capable of carving large chunks off ships.
* Comes with 2 missile slots, meaning one can be used with swarmer missiles to keep AA busy, while a heavier missile such as a Zircon can home in for the killing blow unimpeded.
* Her Bofors can be fired at ships and aircraft, somewhat compensating her (relatively) weak AA defenses.
* Has a faster reloading main gun than it's peer, the Yamato.

### Disadvantages.

* Low mobility and maneuverability, but still better than Yamato.
* Sub-par anti air defenses, could be remedied by mounting better AA modules such as THEL and Pantsir-ME.
* Unlike the *Yamato*, the ship has a noticeably lower durability.
* Her guns are weaker than *Yamato*, for comparison: A full maxed Missouri can take 1/3 of a Varyag’s HP. A *Yamato* without any upgrades can take half of a Varyag’s HP. A full maxed *Yamato* can practically 1-shot a Varyag. (Do note due to recent buffs, Missouri is now capable of 100,000 main battery damage when STOCK. At max it can dish out around 160,000 per salvo (nearly one shotting a Varyag with criticals), bringing her more in line with yamato trading High Alpha damage for better overall DPM/reload speed.)
* Like the Yamato it cannot maneuver without moving.
* On open maps you will be swarmed.

## Trivia

* The ship's durability was increased from 286,000 to 299,000 in the 0.45.8 update, released globally on September 21, 2021.
* The in-game model of the Missouri is visually almost identical to that of the USS New Jersey*'*s model in Battle of Warships.
* A Kamikaze Zero crashed on the ship's starboard side during April 11, 1945; which left a dent that remains to this day.
* Japan's formal surrender was signed on board the historic USS *Missouri* during September 2, 1945.
	+ A plaque was installed on the ship's deck to commemorate the conclusion of World War 2.
* The *Missouri* is the last battleship completed by the US Navy.
* The ship was featured in a movie called Battleship (2012).
* The ship for whatever reason retained dual quad bofors mounts. In real life, all of the original AA mounts have been deleted in favor of CIWS and Stinger mounts.
* On 11/23/2023, a player by the name of 123asap managed to win a 1 vs 5 during a match of arctic using only the mark 7 and Mark 12 of the Missouri having ran out of missiles earlier in the match, securing a clutch and finishing with 3.4 million damage. This feat likely won't be replicated anytime soon given the combination of circumstances and mistakes the enemy team made, leading to the lone BB winning the match.
	+ Player was quoted saying "I brought a gun to a missile fight" after running out of missiles.