South Dakota returned to the United States for repairs that lasted into 1943, after which she was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union.

The ship was powered by four-shaft General Electric steam turbines and eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at 130,000 shaft horsepower (97,000 kW), generating a top speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).

Rear Admiral (RADM) Willis Lee took command of the ships, designated Battleship Division (BatDiv) 6 on 14 August, hoisting his flag aboard South Dakota.

[8] A second strike later that morning, shortly after 10:00 targeted the Enterprise group, and South Dakota provided heavy anti-aircraft fire to drive off the attackers; the ships shot down seven Japanese aircraft and fighters claimed another three.

The 20 mm guns, with their shorter effective range, were not hampered by the reduced visibility and accounted for two-thirds of the aircraft South Dakota shot down, according to the ship's after action report.

[8] The repair team flooded some of South Dakota's internal compartments to induce a list to expose the damaged hull plating; the work lasted from 1 to 6 November, and Gatch had returned to duty the previous day.

[8][15] As Lee's task group approached Guadalcanal, his Japanese counterpart Admiral Nobutake Kondō steamed to meet him with his main bombardment force, consisting of the fast battleship Kirishima, the heavy cruisers Takao and Atago, and a destroyer screen.

[17][18] Shortly thereafter, at about 23:30, an error in the electrical switchboard room knocked out power aboard South Dakota, disabling her radar systems and leaving the ship all but blind to the Japanese vessels approaching the force.

[27] The American contribution to the convoy escort was designated TF 61, commanded by RADM Olaf M. Hustvedt, and consisted of South Dakota, her sister Alabama, and five destroyers.

[27] South Dakota, Alabama, and a screen of destroyers were detached from the carrier raiding force to return to TG 58.2; they arrived back in Majuro on 26 February where they refueled and conducted shooting practice over the next month.

The ship refueled the next day, and on 17 June the carriers and escorting battleships left the Saipan area to meet the 1st Mobile Fleet after patrolling submarines had reported its approach through the Philippine Sea.

[27] Lee kept his ships steaming in a circle that was 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) in diameter to cover a wide area as the Japanese scouts approached the fleet early on 19 June.

One of these, a Yokosuka D4Y dive-bomber, hit South Dakota with a 500-pound (230 kg) bomb at 10:49, blasting an 8-by-10-foot (2.4 by 3.0 m) hole in the deck, disabling a 40 mm mount, and killing twenty-four and wounding another twenty-seven men.

TU 12.5.1 initially headed to Seeadler Harbor in Manus Island off New Guinea, but while en route they were redirected to Ulithi, which had recently been seized to serve as the fleet's advance base.

The fast carrier task force, still under Mitscher's command, steamed north to launch strikes on the Okinawa Islands; they arrived early on the morning of 10 October and began the raid, which sank twenty-nine Japanese vessels in the area.

[30] As Halsey sent Mitscher north to pursue the Japanese carriers, he established TF  34, consisting of South Dakota and five other fast battleships, seven cruisers, and eighteen destroyers, commanded by now Vice Admiral Lee.

[31] Heavy resistance from Taffy 3 threw Kurita's battleships and cruisers into disarray and led him to break off the attack before South Dakota and the rest of TF 34 could arrive.

Halsey detached the battleships Iowa and New Jersey as TG 34.5 to pursue Kurita through the San Bernardino Strait while Lee took the rest of his ships further southwest to try to cut off his escape, but both groups arrived too late.

[27] Immediately on arrival in Ulithi on 2 November, South Dakota sortied as part of TG 38.1, tasked with supporting ground forces ashore on Leyte that had encountered heavy Japanese resistance.

[27] On 11 December, TG 38.3 departed Ulithi to join the rest of TF 38 for an assault on the island of Mindoro; the purpose of the operation was to seize a large airfield that could be used to support the invasion of Luzon.

Late in the day on 17 December, Typhoon Cobra swept through the area, battering the fleet, sinking three destroyers, and inflicting serious damage to several other vessels, though South Dakota emerged relatively unscathed.

The damage inflicted on the fleet delayed further support of ground troops for two days and the continuing bad weather led Halsey to break off operations; the ships arrived back in Ulithi on 24 December.

[33] By early February, Fifth Fleet had resumed control of the fast carrier task force and South Dakota was transferred to TG 58.3, along with New Jersey, the large cruiser Alaska, and several other warships.

The fleet carriers conducted a series of air strikes on Japan, targeting the Tokyo area on 17 February, but bad weather made it difficult for the aircraft to operate.

The ships of TF 58 were then recalled for another series of raids on Japan, targeting Tokyo on 25 February; planned attacks on Kobe and Nagoya were cancelled due to poor weather.

The initiation of major attacks on the island, a clear indicator of an impending amphibious assault, led the Japanese to begin a serious, concentrated kamikaze campaign against the fleet, damaging numerous vessels but not seriously impeding the Allies' progress.

[35] On 19 April, South Dakota was detached from the carriers to join a shore bombardment group sent to support a major offensive by XXIV Army Corps against Japanese defensive positions in southern Okinawa, though they made little progress.

Despite their difficulty in observing the effects of their shooting, in the course of six passes, the battleships inflicted what was later estimated to have been a two-and-a-half-month interruption in coke production and a one-month disruption of pig iron manufacture.

Additional carrier strikes were made from 24 to 28 July, inflicting further losses to the remnants of the Japanese fleet; the battleships Haruna, Ise, and Hyuga were all sunk at their moorings, along with a number of cruisers, destroyers, and other warships.

The ships passed Hawaii and thereafter dispersed to different ports; South Dakota entered San Francisco on 27 October, with Halsey once again aboard for Navy Day celebrations.