High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Iowa-class battleships were a class of fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940 to escort the Fast Carrier Task Forces which would operate in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Six were ordered during the course of World War II, but only four were completed in time to see service in the Pacific Theater. The last two had been laid down, but as a result of the postwar drawdown of the armed forces they were canceled prior to completion and eventually scrapped. Like other third-generation American battleships, the Iowa class followed the design pattern set forth in the preceding North Carolina- and South Dakota-class battleships, which placed great emphasis on speed as well as on the secondary and anti-aircraft batteries.