The Des Moines heavy cruiser is a type of heavy cruiser under the US Navy. The Des Moines heavy cruiser, Des Moines CA134, was launched at the Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company in September 1946 and entered service in November 1948. A total of 3 were built

Design Features
The final standard displacement of Des Moines reached 19993 tons and full discharge reached 21268 tons. The Des Moines is 219 meters long and has a maximum width of 23 meters. The Des Moines uses two sets of GE turbines and four Wilcox boilers, four-axis propulsion, a maximum speed of 33 knots, and a 15 knot speed of 10,500 nautical miles. 1799 crew members.

Ship structure
The Des Moines followed the design of the Baltimore more, but the design was more compact and the rear chimney was removed. According to the US military's experience in the Pacific naval battle, the Des Moines emphasized the air defense and main gun firepower, and a new deck of anti-trigger fuze was laid on the main deck to expand the capacity of the ammunition compartment.

The Des Moines waterline armor belt is 152 mm thick, the hull main deck is 89 mm thick, and the upper deck is 25.4 mm thick. The top of the main gun running tower is 102 mm thick and the front is 203 mm. The turret seat is 160 mm and the commander tower is 140-165 mm. The ship has 5 armored protective belts, with a total armor weight of 2,189 tons, accounting for 12.6% of the standard platoon. It is the same as the Baltimore-class cruisers, but the design distribution is more reasonable.

Fire protection

The Des Moines MK16 gun, which is the first naval gun of the US Navy to use an automatic loader, is powered by pitch and rotation, and can be loaded at any angle. The artillery has a weight of 17.14 tons, a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute, a maximum range of 27,250 meters, and a single ship's ammunition dump capacity of 13.5 tons / minute. When using high-speed armor-piercing shells, it can penetrate 102 mm of armor at a distance of 26 kilometers. The Des Moines is equipped with nine MK16 naval guns, which are installed in three triple turrets, with a front 2 and a 1 layout. With automatic loaders and thicker armor, each turret weighed 451 tons. It is worth mentioning that this excellent 203mm naval gun is only equipped with the Des Moines class. Good guns and good ships are a flash in the pan. The Des Moines secondary gun uses the US military MK12 type 127 mm 38-times high-level dual-purpose gun. The ship is equipped with a total of 6 twin turrets and 4 MK37 firing directors. This combination performed well in the air and sea wars of the late World War II. Four secondary guns are arranged symmetrically on both sides, and the other two are arranged along the centerline of the hull. The gun has a firing rate of 15 to 22 rounds per minute, a maximum range of 15.8 kilometers, and a maximum altitude of 11.4 kilometers.

The Des Moines originally planned to install 12 Bofors 4 4mm 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 20 Elly 20mm single-barrel antiaircraft guns. Wind special attack aircraft. Therefore, the MK33 76mm dual anti-aircraft gun replaced the Bofors gun, while the Orly gun was retained.