Design studies prepared during the development of the earlier North Carolina and South Dakota classes demonstrated the difficulty in resolving the desires of fleet officers with those of the planning staff within the displacement limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty system, which had governed capital ship construction since 1923.

[7] The main battery of the Iowa-class ships consisted of nine 16 in (406 mm)/50-caliber Mark 7 guns[Note 1] in three triple-gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward of the superstructure, with the third aft.

The two outermost compartment are kept loaded with fuel oil or seawater to absorb the energy of the torpedo warhead's detonation and slow the resulting splinters so they can be stopped by the lower armor belt.

In addition to guarding the carriers, Wisconsin and the other battleships acted as oilers for the escorting destroyers, since the fleet's logistics train could not accompany the strike force during raids.

[24] Halsey tasked Wisconsin's carrier group with closing to 50 kilometres (31 mi) of the Indochinese coast on 12 January while the rest of TF 38 supported TG 38.2 and attacked other targets further north.

Halsey also formed a surface action group from TG 38.2 with Wisconsin and New Jersey and five cruisers to bombard Cam Ranh Bay under cover of the morning's airstrikes, but night reconnaissance aircraft revealed well before dawn that the two hybrids were no longer there and their mission was canceled.

[27] On 24 March, the ship joined Missouri and New Jersey as they bombarded targets in southeastern Okinawa to deceive the Japanese about the location of the intended landing beaches, which were actually on the western coast.

On 15 July the three battleships bombarded the blast furnaces and other facilities of the Japan Steel Works as well the coal liquefication plants and coking ovens in Muroran and adjacent Wanishi, Hokkaido, with 860 main-gun shells.

"[15] Shifting subsequently to Okinawa, the battleship embarked homeward-bound GIs on 22 September 1945, as part of Operation Magic Carpet staged to bring soldiers, sailors, and marines home from the far-flung battlefronts of the Pacific.

Departing Okinawa on 23 September, Wisconsin reached Pearl Harbor on 4 October, remaining there for five days before she pushed on for the West Coast on the last leg of her state-side bound voyage.

[15] On 26 November, with Martin and Rear Admiral Francis Denebrink, Commander, Service Force Pacific embarked, Wisconsin departed Yokosuka for Korean waters to support the fast carrier operations of TF 77.

She left the company of the carrier force on 2 December, and screened by the destroyer Wiltsie, provided gunfire support for the Republic of Korea (ROK) Corps in the Kasong-Kosong area.

After disembarking Admiral Denebrink on 3 December at Kangnung, the battleship resumed station on the Korean "bombline", providing gunfire support for the American 1st Marine Division.

She continued her gunfire support task for the 1st Marine Division and 1st ROK Corps through 6 December, accounting for enemy bunkers, artillery positions, and troop concentrations.

The ship shifted its bombardment station to the western end of Wonsan harbor, hitting boats and small craft in the inner swept channel with her 5-inch (127 mm) guns during the afternoon and helping forestall attempts to assault the friendly-held islands nearby.

[15] On 28 December, Cardinal Francis Spellman, on a Korean tour over the Christmas holidays, helicoptered aboard the ship to celebrate Mass for Catholic crew members.

En route home, she touched briefly at Guam, where she took part in the successful test of the Navy's largest floating dry dock on 4–5 April, the first ever to accommodate an Iowa-class battleship.

[15] On 9 June, Wisconsin resumed her role as a training ship, taking midshipmen to Greenock, Scotland; Brest, France; and Guantánamo Bay, before returning to Norfolk.

She spent Christmas at Hong Kong and was ultimately relieved of flagship duties on 1 April 1954 and returned to the United States soon thereafter, reaching Norfolk, via Long Beach and the Panama Canal, on 4 May.

[15] Upon completion of a major overhaul at the New York Naval Shipyard, Wisconsin headed south for refresher training in the Caribbean Sea, later taking part in another Springboard exercise.

Wisconsin served as Admiral Henry C. Crommelin's flagship during the ensuing shore bombardment practices and other exercises held off the isle of Culebra, Puerto Rico, from 2–4 February.

[15] En route, she was called upon to sink a Boeing KC-97F-55-BO Stratofreighter, 51-0258, which had ditched in the Atlantic on 9 May, 550 km (343.8 mi) southeast of the Azores Islands following a double engine failure, and subsequently floated for 10 days.

Departing Norfolk on 19 June, the battleship, over the ensuing weeks, conducted a midshipman training cruise through the Panama Canal to South American waters, and reached Valparaiso on 3 July.

[15] While berthed in the Philadelphia Naval Yard, an electrical fire damaged the ship and left her as the Iowa-class battleship in the worst material condition prior to her 1980s reactivation.

Wisconsin spent the first part of 1989 conducting training exercises in the Atlantic Ocean and off the coast of Puerto Rico before returning to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for a post-recommissioning shakedown that lasted the rest of the year.

The recently recommissioned battleship sent 11 shells 19 mi (31 km) to destroy an Iraqi artillery battery in southern Kuwait during a mission called in by USMC OV-10 Bronco aircraft.

Shortly after Missouri completed her shelling of Faylaka Island, Wisconsin, while still over the horizon (and thus out of visual range of the Iraqi forces) launched her RQ-2 Pioneer UAV to spot for her 16 in (406 mm) guns.

Amused at this sudden development, the men assigned to the drone's aircrew called Wisconsin's commanding officer, Captain David S. Bill III, and asked, "Sir, they want to surrender, what should I do with them?

However, the U.S. Congress remained "deeply concerned" over the loss of naval surface-gunfire support that the battleships provided, and noted, "...navy efforts to improve upon, much less replace, this capability have been highly problematic.

Visitors have included the crew of the Royal Navy's HMS Prince of Wales, who also volunteered to help clean and repaint Wisconsin while stationed in Norfolk during the WESTLANT 23 naval aviation trials in 2023.