Yamato-class battleship

Yamato undergoing trials in 1941
Class overview
Name	Yamato class
Builders	Kure Naval Arsenal Yokosuka Naval Arsenal Mitsubishi Shipyard, Nagasaki
Operators	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by	Nagato class (actual) Number 13 class (planned)
Succeeded by	A-150 class (planned)
Subclasses	2 (Shinano and No. 797 classes)
Cost	¥250,000,897 (equivalent to about ¥132,000,000,000 in 2019)[1]
Built	1937–1942
In commission	1941–1945
Planned	5
Completed	3 (2 battleships, 1 converted to aircraft carrier)
Cancelled	2 (one subclass)
Lost	3
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Battleship
Displacement	69,988 long tons (71,111 t) (trials)[2] 71,659 long tons (72,809 t) (full load).[2]
Length	256 m (839 ft 11 in) (waterline)[3] 263 m (862 ft 10 in) (o/a)[3]
Beam	38.9 m (127 ft 7 in)[3]
Draught	10.4 m (34 ft 1 in)
Installed power	12 water-tube boilers 150,000 shp (110 MW)[3]
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 steam turbines
Speed	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)[3]
Range	7,200 nmi (13,300 km; 8,300 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)[3]
Complement	2,767[4]
Armament	3 × triple 46 cm (18.1 in) guns[2] 4 × triple 15.5 cm (6.1 in) guns[2] 6 × twin 12.7 cm (5 in) guns[2] 8 × triple 25 mm (1 in) AA guns 2 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns[5]
Armor	650 mm (26 in) on face of main turrets[5] 410 mm (16 in) side armor (400 mm (16 in) planned on Shinano and No. 111),[5] inclined 20 degrees 200 mm (8 in) armored deck (75%) 230 mm (9 in) armored deck (25%)[5]
Aircraft carried	4 Aichi E13A, 3 Mitsubishi F1M 2 catapults (Yamato, Musashi) 47 aircraft (Shinano)

The Yamato-class battleships (大和型戦艦, Yamato-gata senkan) were two battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Yamato and Musashi, laid down leading up to the Second World War and completed as designed. A third hull, laid down in 1940, was converted to the aircraft carrier Shinano during construction.

Displacing nearly 72,000 long tons (73,000 t) at full load, the completed battleships were the heaviest ever constructed in the world. The class carried the largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, nine 460 mm (18.1 in) naval guns, each capable of firing 1,460 kg (3,220 lb) shells over 42 km (26 mi).

Due to the threat of U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers, both Yamato and Musashi spent the majority of their careers in naval bases at Brunei, Truk, and Kure—deploying on several occasions in response to U.S. raids on Japanese bases.

All three ships were sunk by the U.S. Navy; Musashi by air strikes while participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Shinano after being torpedoed by the submarine USS Archerfish while under way from Yokosuka to Kure for fitting out in November 1944, and Yamato by air strikes while en route from Japan to Okinawa as part of Operation Ten-Go in April 1945.