The Last Sister Joins the Fleet as World of Warships Reunites the Iowa Class

More than eight decades after four of the most recognizable warships ever built first entered service, the entire Iowa class is finally preparing to sail together in World of Warships. Update 15.11 will introduce the USS New Jersey, completing a quartet that already includes Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin and giving Wargaming the perfect excuse to revisit why these enormous ships repeatedly returned to active duty long after the traditional battleship era appeared to be over.

The accompanying historical video traces that extraordinary career from the fast-carrier battles of World War II through Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War and finally the missile age. What makes the Iowa class remarkable is not simply the scale of its nine 16-inch guns, but its ability to remain militarily useful across radically different generations of naval warfare. Ships conceived before Pearl Harbor eventually carried Tomahawk cruise missiles and Phalanx defensive systems, operating alongside vessels designed decades after their keels were laid.

Four battleships built for a faster kind of war

The United States originally planned six Iowa-class battleships, but only Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and Wisconsin were completed. Illinois and Kentucky were left unfinished as World War II demonstrated that naval aviation had fundamentally changed the balance of power at sea. The four completed ships nevertheless represented the most advanced expression of the American fast-battleship concept.

Speed was fundamental to the design. Earlier battleships had generally been conceived around heavily armored battle lines, but the U.S. Navy now needed capital ships capable of operating with increasingly fast aircraft carrier task forces. The Iowa class could reach approximately 33 knots, while carrying nine 16-inch guns and substantial armor. Wisconsin's official specifications list a standard displacement of 45,000 tons, a length of more than 887 feet and a maximum speed of 33 knots, illustrating just how unusual the combination of size, firepower and mobility was.

Their main battery consisted of nine 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 guns arranged in three triple turrets. Each barrel weighed roughly 120 tons and could fire shells weighing around a ton across distances measured in dozens of kilometers. Naval History and Heritage Command describes the Iowa class as the last class of battleships built by the U.S. Navy and among the most sophisticated battleships ever constructed.

That combination allowed the ships to perform several jobs rather than merely searching for an enemy battle line. They could bombard shore positions, defend carrier formations, contribute enormous anti-aircraft batteries and use their speed to remain attached to fast naval task forces. The battleship was already being displaced by the aircraft carrier as the primary offensive weapon at sea, but the Iowas had been designed intelligently enough to operate inside that new reality.

World War II gave each sister a different legacy

USS Iowa entered service first in February 1943 and ultimately participated in campaigns across the Pacific, including the Marshall and Mariana Islands, the Philippines and Okinawa. Before reaching the Pacific, she even carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic during his journey toward the Tehran Conference. After the war she would return for combat service in Korea before later being modernized again during the 1980s.

New Jersey followed in May 1943 and became particularly closely associated with the fast carrier forces. She participated in operations around the Marshalls, the Marianas, the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, served as flagship for major U.S. fleet commanders and supported the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Her career would eventually become the longest and most combat-intensive of the four sisters.

Missouri arrived later, entering service in June 1944, but secured perhaps the most famous individual moment associated with the entire class. After participating in operations around Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Japanese home islands, her deck became the site where representatives of Japan formally signed the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945, ending World War II.

Wisconsin was also commissioned in 1944 and joined the closing campaigns of the Pacific war, supporting carrier operations and bombarding Japanese positions. Although all four ships shared the same basic design, their later careers would diverge dramatically as changing geopolitical circumstances repeatedly determined which sisters returned from reserve.

Korea proved the big guns were still useful

The rapid decline of the traditional battleship after World War II might have suggested that the Iowas would spend the rest of their careers in reserve. The Korean War demonstrated otherwise.

Missouri was still active when North Korea invaded the South in 1950 and quickly became involved in naval gunfire support. Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin were subsequently recommissioned, bringing the class back into active operations. Their massive guns were particularly useful for attacking coastal artillery positions, transportation infrastructure and troop concentrations while supporting United Nations forces ashore.

New Jersey's official history describes her repeatedly operating as mobile seaborne artillery, capable of moving between targets while delivering firepower far beyond conventional land artillery. Iowa likewise returned to service in 1951 and deployed to Korean waters in 1952 as Seventh Fleet flagship. The battleships were no longer expected to duel equivalent enemy capital ships, but their primary weapons remained extremely effective when the mission shifted toward shore bombardment.

That adaptability became one of the defining characteristics of the class. Their original strategic purpose was disappearing, but the physical capabilities built into the ships remained useful enough to justify bringing them back whenever the Navy required extremely heavy naval gunfire.

New Jersey became the lone battleship of Vietnam

New Jersey would go further than any of her sisters. In 1968 she was recommissioned specifically for service during the Vietnam War and, at the time, became the only active battleship in the U.S. Navy. Between September 1968 and April 1969 she carried out extensive shore bombardment against targets along the Vietnamese coast before being decommissioned again later that year.

That deployment gave New Jersey a distinction none of the other Iowa-class ships share. She remains the only battleship of the class to have served in Vietnam, adding another campaign to a record that already included World War II and Korea.

Her overall service record eventually produced 19 battle and campaign stars, making her the most decorated battleship in U.S. Navy history according to the Battleship New Jersey Museum. The museum also records that she spent more time in active service than any of her sisters and participated in combat or major operations spanning several generations of American naval warfare.

That history makes New Jersey a particularly appropriate final member of the Iowa family to reach World of Warships.

The 1980s transformed battleships into missile platforms

The most extraordinary chapter began decades after the ships had originally been designed. During the Reagan administration's expansion toward a larger U.S. fleet, all four Iowa-class battleships were recommissioned and substantially modernized.

The basic silhouette remained unmistakable. The ships still carried their three enormous 16-inch turrets and much of their 5-inch secondary artillery, but new weapon systems were added around them. Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Phalanx close-in weapon systems brought ships conceived in the 1930s into the missile era, while radar, communications and other electronics were modernized.

The result must have looked almost contradictory. A naval weapon associated with the Second World War could now launch long-range cruise missiles while retaining artillery whose basic concept belonged to the age of battleship gunnery.

New Jersey was the first of the class to return during this period, recommissioning in December 1982. She subsequently used her 16-inch guns during operations connected with the Lebanon crisis before later deployments to the Pacific and Persian Gulf regions. Iowa followed in 1984, Missouri in 1986 and Wisconsin in 1988.

Missouri and Wisconsin fired the class’s final shots in war

The final combat chapter came during the 1991 Gulf War.

Missouri and Wisconsin deployed to the Persian Gulf and used both modern missile technology and the artillery that had defined their original design. Wisconsin's official history records that she launched 24 Tomahawk land-attack missiles and fired 528 16-inch rounds during 36 naval gunfire support missions during her deployment. She also operated remotely piloted vehicles for reconnaissance and artillery spotting.

One of the more extraordinary episodes occurred when Wisconsin's unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flew above Iraqi positions on Faylaka Island and observed troops displaying white flags. Naval History and Heritage Command describes it as the first recorded instance of soldiers surrendering to an unmanned aircraft.

Missouri likewise participated in Desert Storm before finally leaving service in 1992. By that point the Iowa class had crossed an almost absurd technological distance, from carrier escort and anti-aircraft gunnery during World War II to satellite-era warfare involving cruise missiles and unmanned reconnaissance.

There would be no fifth activation. The cost of operating ships requiring enormous crews, together with advances in missile warfare and precision-guided weapons, finally made retirement permanent.

All four survived the scrapyard

Another remarkable feature of the Iowa story is that all four completed ships still exist.

Iowa is preserved in Los Angeles. New Jersey became a museum in Camden. Missouri is located at Pearl Harbor, close to the site where the United States entered World War II and aboard the very ship where the conflict formally ended. Wisconsin is preserved at Nauticus in Norfolk.

That survival gives the class a physical presence that many famous warships lack. Players interested in naval history can still walk the decks, see the machinery and stand beneath weapons that operated from the 1940s through the final years of the Cold War.

World of Warships has also been leaning into that connection with its Naval Museum Atlas program. New Jersey was selected for September 2026, directing players toward the preserved ship in Camden shortly before her full in-game counterpart was scheduled to join the fleet.

New Jersey finally completes the in-game family

The virtual Iowa family has taken considerably longer to assemble.

Iowa is the familiar Tier IX Tech Tree battleship, representing the high-speed American battleship progression with nine 406 mm guns and strong anti-aircraft capability. Missouri, also Tier IX, is a Premium ship distinguished by access to Surveillance Radar. Wisconsin occupies Tier X as a Special battleship built around highly accurate main guns and Combat Instructions capable of improving reload and consumable readiness.

New Jersey will become the fourth historical sister and takes a noticeably different approach. Wargaming is currently developing her as a Tier X support-oriented battleship, retaining the classic nine 406 mm guns and high Iowa-class speed while sacrificing some baseline offensive strength in exchange for consumables designed to strengthen nearby allies.

Those support consumables can improve allied main-battery reload, enhance secondary and torpedo performance, strengthen anti-aircraft output or assist with survivability depending on which tool is used. Activating them also charges New Jersey's Combat Instructions, creating a temporary opportunity for the ship to significantly improve the effectiveness and accuracy of its own main battery. Using the support effects on multiple allies accelerates that progression faster than applying them only to New Jersey herself. Wargaming has stressed that these mechanics and statistics remain subject to adjustment during testing.

It is an unusual interpretation for an Iowa-class ship, but one that creates a clear distinction between four vessels that would otherwise risk feeling extremely similar inside the game.

Speed becomes part of the support role

New Jersey's historical speed is especially relevant to that design. The support consumables operate within a limited radius, so simply sitting at maximum range would reduce the number of allies that can benefit from them. Wargaming instead expects players to use the ship's mobility to follow active flanks and position themselves where several friendly vessels can receive assistance at once.

That introduces a different calculation from the conventional battleship problem of maximizing armor angles and firing opportunities. New Jersey needs to remain close enough to the team to influence it while avoiding positions where her lower-than-average Tier X health pool becomes a liability. An Enhanced Repair Party provides some compensation, but her intended strength lies more in multiplying the effectiveness of a coordinated force than simply absorbing damage alone.

The resulting gameplay identity is almost fitting for a ship that repeatedly reinvented itself historically. New Jersey spent her real career moving from carrier escort to shore bombardment, from Vietnam gunfire support to Cold War missile operations. Her virtual counterpart is similarly being asked to do something unconventional with an otherwise familiar Iowa-class platform.

Update 15.11 closes a circle more than a decade in the making

Wargaming currently plans to add New Jersey through Update 15.11, where she will become one of four new ships added to the Holiday Convoy reward roster. The developer has also confirmed that New Jersey will play a role in the subsequent New Year celebrations, including a separate special version of the ship, although complete acquisition details have not yet been announced.

Her arrival carries more significance than another Tier X Premium entering the game. Iowa has been part of World of Warships since its earliest years, Missouri became one of its most famous Premium ships, and Wisconsin arrived much later with a distinctly different Tier X interpretation. New Jersey finally closes the historical gap.

For the first time, players will be able to assemble the four Iowa-class battleships that actually entered U.S. Navy service inside the same game.

That makes Wargaming's new historical feature particularly well timed. The Iowa class is remembered for enormous guns and imposing silhouettes, but its real achievement was longevity. These ships survived the transition from battleship warfare to carrier warfare, returned as floating artillery during regional conflicts and then emerged from reserve yet again carrying cruise missiles designed in an entirely different technological age.

Few warships have had to adapt to so many different versions of naval warfare.

When New Jersey arrives in Update 15.11, World of Warships will finally have all four sisters necessary to tell that entire story.