Скачать или смотреть Experimental US Battleships: From Guns to Missiles

As the guns of World War II fell silent, the U.S. Navy faced a new challenge—how to adapt its aging battleships to a rapidly changing technological landscape. Instead of scrapping these mighty vessels immediately, the Navy found a new use for them: floating laboratories for cutting-edge weapons testing. In this video, we explore the remarkable postwar careers of USS Wyoming (BB-32) and USS Mississippi (BB-41) as experimental weapons platforms.

After being demilitarized under the London Naval Treaty, Wyoming became a training ship. But with the outbreak of WWII, she was transformed into the “Chesapeake Raider,” training thousands of sailors in antiaircraft gunnery along the East Coast. She was refitted extensively during the war with an impressive suite of AA weaponry—including 5-inch/38s, 40mm Bofors, and 20mm Oerlikons—becoming a crucial part of the Navy’s antiaircraft training program.

But the real transformation came in 1945 when Wyoming was further modified to test new AA technologies as part of Task Force 69, under the direction of the legendary Admiral Willis Lee. Sadly, Lee died suddenly during this phase, but Wyoming continued her role as the flagship for this experimental force until her decommissioning in August 1945.

At that point, the torch passed to USS Mississippi, a ship that had just helped annihilate the Japanese Southern Force at the Battle of Surigao Strait. Reclassified as EAG-128, she underwent an extensive conversion that stripped most of her big guns and replaced them with a bizarre assortment of new and experimental weapons—including the 6-inch/47, 5-inch/54, and 3-inch/70 mounts, alongside multiple directors and Combat Information Centers (CICs). Her final and most significant mission? Testing the Navy’s first surface-to-air guided missile—the RIM-2 Terrier.

From shooting down drones to launching missiles off her aft deck, Mississippi helped usher in the guided missile era. She fired the first test shots of the Terrier in 1953 and continued weapons testing—including the Petrel air-to-surface missile—until her decommissioning in 1956.

These ships, born in the era of coal-fired dreadnoughts, died testing the future of warfare. Their careers are a testament to the adaptability of naval engineering and the Navy’s determination to squeeze every ounce of value out of its battlewagons.

If you enjoy stories like this—naval oddities, forgotten chapters, and postwar innovation—don’t forget to like and subscribe! Share your thoughts in the comments and let us know which ship’s story you’d like to see next.

Intro 0:00
Wyoming 0:38
Mississippi 5:32
Conclusion 11:06

Sources/Other Reading:

https://www.amazon.com/Castles-Steel-...

https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Battleship...

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/...

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-coll...

Video Information:
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