USS Nevada
Contents
Description
The Nevada-class, USS Nevada (BB-36), 1944 is one of two Nevada-class battleships built for the US Navy, laid down in 1912 and commissioned in 1916. USS Nevada was commissioned first, making her the first "Standard-Type" battleship. Her innovations would be carried forward into the future American battleships, including triple gun turrets and the introduction of the "all-or-nothing" armour scheme. She would serve with distinction through both World Wars, seeing extensive combat action during World War II in particular.
She was introduced in Update "Sky Guardians", and although having a slightly smaller main battery than the later USS Arizona, she stands out with her incredibly strong secondary and anti-aircraft batteries. Coming in her late war refit, USS Nevada gives American bluewater captains their first battleship with both strong firepower, and the ability to easily fend off air attack. This does come with the caveat of having at minimum a 40 second reload on the main battery; it's recommended to keep enemies at a distance where the long time between salvos can be mitigated.
General info
Survivability and armour
USS Nevada is a very well-armoured battleship. Like other American battleships of the time, she was designed to be able to resist guns similar to her own 14-inch guns at expected battle ranges. This gives her a main armour belt of 13.5 inches, the same as the later USS Arizona. Keep in mind that "expected battle ranges" as designed were usually much further than what is typical in War Thunder, so Captains can't always expect their armour to hold up against guns such as the British 13.5-inch and the various 14-inch guns; albeit 12-inch shells should usually be stopped. The belt goes from 13.5 inches at the waterline, to 8 inches slightly below the waterline and 3 inches further down. This leads into the torpedo protection, which on Nevada protects against torpedoes with warheads of up to 250 kg explosive mass.
The best armoured areas on the ship are the turrets; the angled 16-inch plates on the turret faces are almost impenetrable, the 43 degree angle making it incredibly unlikely for any fire to penetrate the face. The armour is lighter on the sides, rear and top with 10 inches, 9 inches, and 5 inches respectively. This leaves the sides and top of the turrets vulnerable to even heavy cruisers, so it's recommended to be cautious of exposing the sides of the turrets. The barbettes also have 13 inches of armour, which is quite good, more than most battleships of the same rank. The magazines are placed slightly below the waterline and against the waterline, mostly shielding them from enemy fire; however shots on a flat trajectory directly above the waterline do pose a slight risk of ammo rack detonation.
USS Nevada was the first ship ever to use the "all or nothing" armour scheme. This armour philosophy uses the most armour in critical areas like the citadel, and none in other areas. This is perfect for fighting enemy capital ships at range, as AP shells will pass through unimportant areas that lack armour armour without fusing, and allows for the thickest possible armour over important sections of the ship. However, keep in mind that this also makes the unprotected areas of the ship vulnerable to taking damage from smaller ships, even destroyers. These areas may not be important, but crew still resides in these areas and constant repairing will still bleed crew, even more so on Nevada since she has so many secondary and anti-aircraft guns.
Mobility
USS Nevada, as the first Standard-type battleship, was originally designed to hit 21.0 kn. However, as Nevada comes in her 1944 refit that speed has decreased by a knot to 20.0 kn due to the increased displacement caused by the prodigious amounts of anti-aircraft guns and the add-on torpedo bulges. This places her as the slowest battleship currently in the US Bluewater fleet, and slower than most of the contemporary battleships in other nations as well. This speed falls to only 14.0 kn when in a turn, which although making her an easier target, can be used by captains in a pinch to slow the ship to dodge long range enemy fire. USS Nevada is also rather slow to respond to the helm, taking approximately 4-5 seconds to begin turning from the initial command. Captains should plan their routes ahead, as Nevada is unable to navigate through sharp turns easily. She does however easily halt the turn, lacking the tendency of the USS Arizona to reverse the turn after the rudder is released.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 44 | 27 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 38 | 23 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
USS Nevada is armed with a total of 10 x 14-inch 45-calibre cannons, arranged in four turrets, two superfiring forward, two superfiring aft. Interestingly, the Nevada uses a mix of triple and double turrets, the double superfiring over the triple turrets. This arrangement was used instead of 4 triple turrets to minimize the space taken up by the barbettes and magazines, as larger triple turrets would have taken up the room which the machinery spaces currently occupy, forcing a larger and heavier displacement ship. Although the same calibre as the Arizona, these 14-inch guns are the Mark 12 version rather than the earlier Mark 8 of the Arizona, though the guns of both ships share the exact same shell performance, giving Arizona a slight edge in surface warfare due to the extra two guns. Interesting to note, the guns in A turret are actually the same barrels that were on USS Arizona when she was sunk on the attack on Pearl Harbor; these had been salvaged and were used to replace Nevada's worn out barrels, being relined to Mark 12 specifications.
Like the Arizona, the Nevada has the same cramped turrets, resulting in the same excruciating reload time of 40 seconds at best, meaning that any missed salvoes will seriously cut into the damage output. This can be partially mitigated by firing the turrets separately; this can be especially effective against light targets such as destroyers and light cruisers, and allow some ability to engage multiple targets.
The Mk.9 HE, with 46.67 kg TNT equivalent, can cause flooding and fire on any ship taking a hit, the damage may be severe enough from a concentrated salvo for many destroyers and sometimes even cruisers to roll over and capsize. It should be noted, however, that USN ammunition has historically contained less filler than other nations' navies. While containing more filler than the Japanese and German 12-inch shells, it does not compare favourably even against the 12-inch shells on Russian/Soviet capital ships, let alone against the monstrous 88.11 kg explosive mass found on the 13.5-inch of HMS Marlborough.
The Mk.8 AP shell has fairly respectable levels of penetration, with a maximum of 637 mm at 1 km and 444 mm at 10 km. This is the main shell to use on enemy capital ships, and especially those with effective armour layouts. The bursting charge is not bad either, standing at 15.24 kg, heavier than the charge in Japanese 14-inch AP, though lighter than the charge in British 13.5-inch Mk.Ia AP. To get the most out of the shell, it is recommended to aim for magazines, engines, shell magazines, and other essential components of the enemy ships. This shell is usually not suited for firing upon ships such as destroyers or lightly armoured cruisers (<70-100 mm armour) unless being fired directly down the centreline of the vessel, as it will more often than not fly through the ship and explode in the open, rather than on the inside the enemy ship.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| Mk.9 HE | HE | 71 | 71 | 71 | 71 | 71 | 71 |
| Mk.8 APCBC | APCBC | 637 | 597 | 536 | 484 | 439 | 372 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Mk.9 HE | HE | 823 | 635 | 0 | 0.1 | 46.67 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Mk.8 APCBC | APCBC | 823 | 635 | 0.035 | 17 | 15.24 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
USS Nevada comes equipped with a secondary battery consisting of 8 x dual 5-inch/38 calibre guns, arranged 4 per side amidships. This effectively gives the Nevada the same secondary broadside as the Porter-class destroyers found earlier in the bluewater line. These guns have an incredibly quick reload rate of as low as 3.6 seconds; this allows captains to quickly dish out damage to destroyers and light cruisers, helping to cope with the exceptionally long reload found on the main battery. For this purpose the "SP Common" shells are recommended, as though they have less filler than the normal common shells, they still do good post-penetration damage and give sufficient penetration to damage light cruisers at close range.
The 5-inchers also have access to two types of high explosive shells; these are the AAC Mk.34 (HE) and AAVT Mk.31 (HE-VT). Both have identical quantities of explosive filler, therefore it's recommended to use the HE-VT in all circumstances. It will do equal damage to surface targets, while still being able to reliably engage air targets with the proximity fuse. This combined with the quick fire rate allows for effective anti-aircraft fire at ranges exceeding the smaller calibre guns. As Nevada has a radar, this can be used to spot enemy air targets approaching, although Nevada lacks a tracking radar director so captains would have to rely on aiming manually unlike other ships with fire directors like the USS Des Moines.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| AAC Mk.34 | HE | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Common Mk.32 | Common | 124 | 103 | 77 | 58 | 46 | 37 |
| SP Common Mk.46 | SP Common | 150 | 125 | 93 | 71 | 56 | 45 |
| AAVT Mk.31 | HE-VT | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| AAC Mk.34 | HE | 792 | 25 | 0 | 0.1 | 3,220 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Common Mk.32 | Common | 792 | 24.49 | 0.01 | 6 | 1,150 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| SP Common Mk.46 | SP Common | 792 | 25 | 0.01 | 6 | 906.5 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| Proximity-fused shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Arming distance (m) |
Trigger radius (m) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| AAVT Mk.31 | HE-VT | 792 | 25 | 0 | 0.1 | 457 | 23 | 3,220 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |
Anti-aircraft armament
An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.
Scout plane
Usage in battles
Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Decent quality 356 mm shells
- Heavily armoured
- Large and effective AA suite
Cons:
- Incredibly slow
- AA suite highly vulnerable to explosive blasts
- Long main battery reload
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| USA battleships | |
|---|---|
| Delaware-class | USS North Dakota |
| Wyoming-class | USS Wyoming · USS Arkansas |
| New York-class | USS Texas |
| Nevada-class | USS Nevada |
| Pennsylvania-class | USS Arizona |
| New Mexico-class | USS Mississippi |
| Tennessee-class | USS Tennessee |
