USS Alaska
Contents
Description
The Alaska class was the first and only class of ships commissioned under the classification of Large Cruiser. USS Alaska was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and commissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on the bow and one aft. Her long-range anti-aircraft protection suite was made up of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns in twin mounts with three turrets fore and aft placed much like contemporary US cruiser arrangementl. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of Okinawa, which was her only major action. On 17th February 1947, Alaska was decommissioned. There was some thought given to converting the Alaska class to missile ships, but these plans never materialised and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
Alaska-class, USS Alaska (CB-1), 1944 was introduced in Update "Drone Age". She is fast and quite manoeuvrable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, and is no match against a direct battleship encounter. Her magazines located on the waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 228.6mm thick of belt armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
General info
Survivability and armour
| Armour | Front | Side | Rear | Roof/Deck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main calibre turret | 12.8 inches | 6 inches (front, cheeks) 5.25 inches (rear) |
5.25 inches | 5 inches |
| Auxiliary calibre turret | 1 inch | 0.75 inches | 0.75 inches | 1 inch |
| Barbette | 11 inches (upper) 1.5 inches (lower) |
13 inches (front, upper) 12 inches (rear, upper) 1.5 inches (lower) |
11 inches (upper) 1.5 inches (lower) |
1.9 inches |
| Citadel | 0.62 inches (upper) 10.25 inches (middle) 2 inches (lower) |
1.125 inches (upper) 9 inches (middle) 5-7 inches (lower) 0.75 inches (inner) |
0.62 inches (upper) 10.25 inches (middle) 2 inches (lower) |
1.425 inches (upper) 4.25 inches (middle, magazine) 3.8 inches (middle, machinery) 0.75 inches (lower, magazines only) |
| Bridge | 10.63 inches | 5 inches | ||
The Alaska armour scheme was primarily designed to repel 8 inch gun fire. She has a belt armour of 228.6mm, at 10 degree incline. This will protect you from cruiser gunfire, but not Capital ship grade guns. Her underwater protection is also severely lacking. The tapering of the belt armour starts right at the waterline, this means that while the ship is riding wave, theres chances that the wave profile could expose this much thinner belt tapering of 177.8mm and 127mm. she has a 19.05mm of Anti Fragmentation steel protecting her boiler room and internals but these plates are rarely able to stop shells.
Notes:
- The entire superstructure except for the funnel has 0.75 inches of anti-fragmentation armour
Mobility
USS Alaska has an average mobility for a Large cruiser. Being a heavy ship, captains of Alaska should not expect to stop from flank speed fastly, a process that can take about half a minute. Being a long ship, changing direction will also take some time and captains of Alaska should expect a large turn radius.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 71 | 21 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 61 | 18 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The main armament of the Alaska is composed of a total of 9x 305mm 50-calibre cannons, arranged in three triple turrets with two superfiring fore and one aft. The gun handling is not slow, but not especially fast for the size of the turrets. The maximum reload speed is quite competitive at 20 seconds, though most players of the ship won't have a top level crew and thus will have a somewhat slower reload.
The Alaska has access to two shell types for the main guns.
The armour-piercing shell is the main one you'll use for opposing capital ships and occasionally on cruisers that may have a lot of armour or are angled. The AP shell of the Alaska was designed as a so called 'super-heavy' shell, which means that it has a lot bit more mass than a normal AP shell. This means the shell has less muzzle velocity, intended to give the shells a sharper descent angle when coming down on an opposing vessel, a little like a mortar, with the hopes of going through deck armour, which tends to be relatively thin.
The problem with this is that the US didn't realise that the range needed to have the shells drop at a flat enough angle on the deck to effectively penetrate most deck armour was quite a bit further than you could physically aim with any real accuracy. What this means is that you simply cannot use the shells for their intended purpose of hitting deck armour, meanwhile the lower muzzle velocity makes aiming your AP shells more difficult and shells hitting the side of an enemy vessel are at a sharper angle than they would otherwise have been, which makes it unnecessarily harder to penetrate enemy side armour. However, despite this shortcomings, you can turn this unique shell characteristic to your advantage, by using the shell sharper angle to dive underwater, and hence penetrating under the enemy belt armor. This might be harder to do, and require some practice by deliberately aiming slightly short of the enemy ship, it could result in damaging or detonating enemy ship critical spot without the need of defeating their armor belt. The only real problem to this strategy is that shells can only penetrate so much water, you need to be accurate in the lead, and you still need to keep some distance (i'd say no less than 6km) against the enemy ship in order to give the shell a comfortable ballistic to perform this tactic. The shell bursting charge itself is slightly low, at less than 8kg of TNT, however this should be adequate to damage enemy ship should you land an accurate hit.
The HE shell of the Alaska is a more normal naval shell and the 35kg of explosive power is fairly decent for its calibre. Although it's not too competitive compared to the real hard hitting HE shells at top tier naval, this shell will still enable you effectively dispatch lightly armoured vessels such as destroyers and small cruisers without difficulty, as well as being able to harass anything on the deck of opposing capital ships.
| 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.17 HC | HE | 68 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 68 |
| Mk.18 AP | APCBC | 621 | 582 | 524 | 475 | 434 | 374 |
| 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.17 HC | HE | 808 | 426.38 | 0 | 0.1 | 35.31 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Mk.18 AP | APCBC | 762 | 517 | 0.035 | 17 | 7.73 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
By this time, you should've acquainted yourself well enough with what arguably is the best dual purpose gun in the US Navy, if not of the whole world war 2. This guns possess a comfortable turret train speed, a good reload of 3-4 seconds, and armed with the Radio Fused shell. Combined with the Alaska Tracking Radar Director, you can pepper enemy aircraft with a real accurate spread of 5 inch HEVT shell, downing enemy aircraft quickly and efficiently.
| 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
The Alaska carried a total of 14x Quadruple 40mm Bofors mount, as well as 34x Single 20mm Oerlikon mount. This give the Alaska a total of 90 anti aircraft barrel combined, which was the highest of all US Navy ship in game combined, at the time of this writing. for close range AA defense you will have almost no issue at repelling air attack or the occasional torpedo boat run. Although keep in mind with alot of AA mount on the deck means an increase of crew loss per repair and fire hazards.
Scout plane
Located midships are two catapults with one OS2U-1 scout plane each which provide unique offensive and defensive abilities, expanding tactical options. Ship-launched scout planes fly just like regular tree units but lack munition choices and cockpit views. Alongside the typical abilities of strafing, dropping 2 x 100 lb bombs, and capturing zones, the OS2U-1 and other scout planes have the added ability to lay down smoke cover (up to 3 times). Captains will be wise to remember to utilize the aircraft and consider when best to use it, for example to cap a point early or late in the match, to create a smoke screen to stymie enemy bombardment and repair, to attack enemy units directly, or perhaps something completely new! With two scout planes one can risk a cap attempt at the beginning of the match, saving the second for any opportunity that presents itself.
Usage in battles
Alaska is a versatile warrior capable of achieving multiple objectives. However it must be remembered, as far as a capital ship goes she is still a Large Cruiser at heart. Her protection isn't fit to fight heavily armed battleships, while you might tank a few hits if you play your cards right, such as angling and reducing ammunition loads, a larger and particularly heavy shells, such as Japanese 14 inch gun and 15 inch guns, are well capable of penetrating into Alaska magazine even at unfavourable angle. Anti fragmentation armor might help you tank some of the cruiser HE spam, but with enough time or cruiser spamming at you, you could be overwhelmed.
You can spawn Alaska anytime you like, spawning early on might leave you more target to shoot at and hence potential kills, however be very aware of enemy capital ship, as any capital ship grade guns (11 inch and above) will definitely threaten the alaska. Spawning later on the match will allow Alaska to efficiently "clean up" remaining enemy ship, with her quick reload, her fast speed is definitely useful in capturing and securing objectives, and her formidable AA battery should protect you and any nearby allied ships from any aerial threat.
Another note to increase survivability of the Alaska, is to carry less ammunition load. The Alaska has separate magazine and shell room hitbox modelled, and so with reduced ammunition load, you can hide all of your shells hidden way under the waterline. You could experiment with the loadout yourself but i'd advise to start with a total of 495 shells. This figure will hide all but your stern main gun magazine underwater, and leave you about 18 minutes of theoretical continuous firing with maximum reload speed (match often spans from 15 to 25 minutes. theoretical continuous firing rate does not account crew skill or time you take to aim, so this 18 minutes figure will likely stretch beyond 18. you can increase or decrease the ammunition load as you see fit depending on map or other needs). The idea is that as the match progress, you'll expend the stern magazine somewhere early to middle of the match where things started to heat up and when the Alaska might need to face heavier capital ship, you'll be ready.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good survivability
- Excellent top speed and manoeuvrable
- Massive amount of AA defenses
- Two scout seaplanes
Cons:
- Full potential is locked behind high tier modifications (max top speed and floatplanes), stock ship is hardship
- 12 inch shell might feels weaker, especially compared to 14 inch or 15 inch gun
- Somewhat exposed ammunition room
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
- Skins
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
| New York Shipbuilding Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Gun Destroyers (DD) | |
| Porter-class | USS Porter |
| Cruiser, Light (CL) | |
| Cleveland-class | USS Cleveland |
| Fargo-class | USS Fargo |
| Worcester-class | USS Roanoke |
| Large Cruisers (CB) | |
| Alaska-class | USS Alaska |
| Battleships (BB) | |
| Wyoming-class | USS Arkansas |
| USA battlecruisers | |
|---|---|
| Alaska-class | USS Alaska |
