[1] The twelve[a] vessels commissioned constituted the US Navy's main battle line in the interwar period, while many of the ten earlier dreadnoughts were scrapped or relegated to secondary duties.
By contrast, other navies had fast and slow battleship classes that could not operate together unless limited to the performance of the ship with slowest speed and widest turning circle.
The Colorado-class battleships were 624 feet (190 m) long, displaced 32,600 tons, had a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h), and carried a main battery of eight 16-inch (406 mm) guns.
[3] Since oil was scarce in the British Isles, only Nevada and Oklahoma actively participated in World War I by escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Britain.
[7] On 7 December 1941, Colorado was undergoing a refit to install new torpedo bulges at Puget Sound Navy Yard,[8] while the three ships of the New Mexico class were assigned to the Atlantic Fleet.
[9] During the Pearl Harbor Attack, Arizona's forward magazine exploded from a bomb hit [10]and Oklahoma capsized after multiple torpedo strikes, both with significant losses of life.
Tennessee, California and West Virginia were even more thoroughly rebuilt, incorporating not just changes similar to Nevada but increased deck armour, torpedo bulges and improved subdivision and a modern radar and electronics suite, though their widened beam exceeded the Panama Canal restrictions which limited their operations to the Pacific.
The ten surviving Standard Type battleships served throughout World War II primarily as fire support for amphibious landings.