[5] In 1906 the US Navy's battleships were concentrated in the Atlantic, and three or four armored cruisers were assigned to the Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines to counter Japan's rising naval power.

By 1912 the rapid development of dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers left the armored cruisers unable to successfully engage the newer capital ships.

[5] These ships were originally armed with four 8-inch (203 mm)/40 caliber Mark 5 guns in two twin turrets fore and aft.

[1] In the development of these ships Captain Sigsbee, formerly of the ill-fated Maine, successfully argued for adequate armor protection at the expense of speed.

[1][5] The engineering plant included 16 coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers (32 Niclausse boilers in the Cramp-built Pennsylvania and Colorado)[2] supplying 250 psi (1,700 kPa) steam to two inverted vertical four-cylinder triple-expansion engines, totaling 23,000 ihp (17,000 kW) for 22 kn (41 km/h; 25 mph) as designed.

This was a one-off demonstration on 18 January 1911 with pilot Eugene Ely, who had performed the first takeoff from a ship on USS Birmingham (CL-2) two months earlier.

[1][5] From 1915 to the American entry into World War I in April 1917, Huntington and two Tennessee-class ships had catapults for seaplanes (which disabled the after turret) and carried up to four aircraft; Huntington could also tether an observation balloon, which was used during convoy escort duty in the war.

All but four of the 6-inch guns were removed to arm merchant ships and reduce the potential of flooding through the lower casemates; this was a factor in the loss of San Diego (probably to a mine) in July 1918.

Possible upgrades would be new boilers and engines for a speed of 25–27 kn (46–50 km/h; 29–31 mph), a more seaworthy bow, protection improvements, and new triple 8-inch/55 caliber gun turrets as in the Pensacola class.

Huron survived as a floating breakwater in Powell River, British Columbia until wrecked by a storm in 1961.