During the interwar years, Arkansas performed a variety of duties, including training cruises for midshipmen and goodwill visits overseas.

Arkansas was expended as a target in Operation Crossroads, a pair of nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946.

The ship was powered by four-shaft Parsons steam turbines and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers rated at 28,000 shp (21,000 kW), generating a top speed of 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph).

Two of Arkansas's crewmen were killed in the fighting, and another two, John Grady and Jonas H. Ingram, received the Medal of Honor for actions during the occupation.

While stationed in Veracruz, the ship was visited by Captain Franz von Papen, the German military attaché to the United States and Mexico, and Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock, the commander of the British 4th Cruiser Squadron, on 10 May and 30 May 1914, respectively.

[2] On 25 June, the repairs were complete, and Arkansas departed for Newport, Rhode Island, for torpedo practice and tactical maneuvers in Narragansett Bay, which lasted through late August.

The ship was in Brooklyn for repairs on 19 November, which lasted until 5 January 1916, when she steamed south to the Caribbean Sea, via Hampton Roads, for winter exercises.

[2] The ship was sent to Britain in July 1918 to relieve the battleship Delaware, which had been assigned to operate with the Grand Fleet in the 6th Battle Squadron since December 1917.

[5] Arkansas departed the United States on 14 July; while approaching the Royal Navy base in Rosyth, the battleship fired on what was thought to be a periscope from a German U-boat.

After completing the escort, Arkansas sailed for New York City, arriving on 26 December, where the fleet participated in a Naval Review for Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.

After completing that task, she steamed to Brest, on 10 June, and picked up Admiral William S. Benson, the Chief of Naval Operations, and his wife.

[2] On 19 July, Arkansas departed Hampton Roads, to join her new assignment, the US Pacific Fleet, bound for San Francisco.

She took Daniels and his wife to Blakely Harbor, Washington, on 12 September, and the following day, participated in a naval review for President Wilson.

On 5 September 1927, Arkansas was present for ceremonies unveiling a memorial tablet honoring the French soldiers and sailors who died during the Yorktown campaign in 1781.

[13] Arkansas was transferred to the Pacific Fleet after completing the refit; while en route, she stopped in New Orleans to participate in the Mardi Gras celebration.

She operated off the west coast through early 1934, at which point she was transferred back to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as the flagship of the Training Squadron.

After completing the overhaul, the ship took another midshipmen crew to European waters; she called in the ports of Portsmouth, England, Gothenburg, Sweden, and Cherbourg, and returned to Annapolis, in August.

[2] At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Arkansas was moored at Hampton Roads, preparing to depart on a training cruise for the Naval Reserve.

[2] After returning to Virginia, Arkansas was assigned to a reserve force for the Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic, along with her sister Wyoming, the battleships New York and Texas and the carrier Ranger.

[2] The ship was assigned to the escort force for the Marines deployed to occupy Iceland, in July 1941, along with New York, two cruisers, and eleven destroyers.

[18] After returning to port, Arkansas traveled to the Atlantic Charter conference with President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which took place on board HMS Prince of Wales.

[18] Arkansas was anchored in Casco Bay, Maine, on 7 December 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the United States into the war.

[22] Her float plane artillery observer pilots were temporarily assigned to VOS-7 flying Spitfires from RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus).

She bombarded German positions around Omaha Beach until 13 June, when she was moved to support ground forces in Grandcamp les Bains.

On 25 June, Arkansas bombarded Cherbourg, in support of the American attack on the port; German coastal guns straddled her several times, but scored no hits.

Cherbourg fell to the Allies the next day, after which Arkansas returned to port, first in Weymouth, England, and then to Bangor, Northern Ireland, on 30 June.

Arkansas then returned to the United States, arriving in Boston, on 14 September, where she underwent another refit that lasted until early November.

On 20 January 1945, Arkansas departed California for Pearl Harbor, and then proceeded to Ulithi, to join the fleet in preparation for the amphibious assault on Iwo Jima.

The bombardment lasted until 19 February, though she remained off the island throughout the Battle of Iwo Jima, ready to provide fire support to the American Marines ashore.

Unattenuated by air, the shock was "transmitted directly to underwater hulls", and Arkansas, only 250 yd (230 m) from the epicenter, appeared to have been "crushed as if by a tremendous hammer blow from below".