BB-66 USS Kentucky

BB-66 USS Kentucky

BB-66 USS Kentucky was an uncompleted battleship originally intended to be the second ship of the Montana class. However, the urgent need for more warships at the outbreak of World War II and the U.S. Navy’s experiences in the Pacific theater led it to conclude that rather than battleships larger and more heavily armed than the Iowa class, it quickly needed more fast battleships of that class to escort the new Essex-class aircraft carriers being built. As a result, hulls BB-65 and BB-66 were reordered and laid down as Iowa-class battleships in 1942. As such, she was intended to be the sixth and final member of the Iowa-class constructed.

Like her sister ship Illinois BB-65, laid down as one of the last pair of Iowa-class ahead of her, Kentucky was still under construction at the end of hostilities and became caught up in the post-war draw-down of the armed services. Her construction was suspended twice, during which times she served as a parts hulk. In the 1950s, several proposals were made to complete the ship as a guided missile battleship, abandoned primarily due to cost concerns and the rampant pace of evolving missile technology. Kentucky ultimately was sold for scrap in 1958.