Pacific Pearl: USS Oklahoma (BB-37)

USS Oklahoma (BB-37) is the second of two Nevada-class battleships built for the U.S. Navy at the start of the 20th century.

Vehicle History

Laid down in 1912 and commissioned in 1916 as the second of two Nevada-class battleships, USS Oklahoma introduced major innovations of the “Standard-type” battleship concept, including oil-fired boilers, a centerline main battery of ten 14-inch guns, and the revolutionary “all-or-nothing” armor scheme designed to protect vital areas while saving weight elsewhere. The ship’s design reflected lessons learned from earlier dreadnoughts and the United States’ determination to keep pace with Britain and Germany in the pre-World War I naval arms race.

During World War I, USS Oklahoma served primarily in training and convoy escort duties, as the U.S. fleet remained largely intact to deter German surface forces. In the interwar years, the ship operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific, participating in fleet exercises. By the late 1930s, rising tensions with Japan shifted much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a deterrent. On December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma was struck by multiple torpedoes and quickly capsized, resulting in a high loss of life. Though righted in 1943 as part of an immense salvage effort, USS Oklahoma was deemed too damaged and obsolete for full repair and was therefore decommissioned in 1944. Sold for scrap after the war, the mighty warship ultimately sank while under tow in 1947.

Introducing USS Oklahoma (BB-37)!

Meet USS Oklahoma, a new American battleship arriving to the higher ranks of the U.S. Bluewater Fleet tree as an event vehicle which can be obtained in the Pacific Pearl even that started today. Cumbersome, yet heavily protected and armed to the teeth with hard-hitting 14’’ (356 mm) cannons, USS Oklahoma acts as an ideal vessel to transition from early American dreadnoughts to more advanced battleship classes of the top ranks. Let’s unpack the details of this iconic battleship in today’s devblog!

USS Oklahoma will join the U.S. Bluewater Fleet tree as an early representative of the Nevada-class battleship. As such, the warship doesn’t benefit from an extensively upgraded anti-air suite as its sistership in the game. However, USS Oklahoma inherits the class’ extremely effective armor scheme, featuring the ‘all-or-nothing’ layout peaking at a belt armor thickness of 343 mm around the ship’s most vital components such as machinery, magazines and command centers. On the other hand, USS Oklahoma is fitted with a slightly thinner deck armor than USS Nevada, going up to a maximum thickness of 114 mm. As a result, USS Oklahoma is slightly more susceptible to damage from plunging fire during long-range gun engagements.

Unlike USS Nevada, which players already had a chance to familiarize themselves with, USS Oklahoma comes to War Thunder in its 1926 refit which not only visually differs from its sistership, but also brings some differences with the weapons arsenal too. As such, while USS Oklahoma retains its powerful 14’’ main battery consisting of a total of 10 guns with lower muzzle velocity though, the ship’s secondary and anti-air arsenal differ substantially from USS Nevada. USS Oklahoma features 12 single 5’’ (127 mm) cannons further augmented by eight 3’’ (76 mm) anti-air cannons. Effectively, this secondary battery keeps USS Oklahoma very effective against lighter vessels and slow-moving distant aircraft. However, the warship may be slow to react to unexpected aerial attacks