Ship:California

14.8

California

Battleship | U.S.A. | Tier VII

Tech Tree Position

General

Purchase priceSpecial

Hit Points58,300

Main Battery

356 mm/50 Mk.7 in a turret4 х 3 pcs.

Rate of Fire1.8 shots/min

Reload Time32 sec

Rotation Speed3 deg/sec

180 Degree Turn Time60 sec

Firing Range19.9 km

Maximum Dispersion259 m

HE Shell356 mm HE/HC Mk22

Maximum HE Damage5,000

Chance of Fire30 %

Initial HE Velocity861 m/s

HE Shell Weight578.34 kg

AP Shell356 mm AP Mk16

Maximum AP Shell Damage10,500

Initial AP Shell Velocity823 m/s

AP Shell Weight680.4 kg

Secondary Armament #1

127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.32 mount8 х 2 pcs.

Firing Range5.6 km

Rate of Fire10 shots/min

Reload Time6 sec

HE Shell127 mm HE Mk32

Maximum HE Shell Damage1,800

Initial HE Shell Velocity792 m/s

Chance of Fire on Target Caused by HE Shell5 %

AA Defense

20 mm Oerlikon on a single Mk.20 mount41 х 2 pcs.

40 mm/56 Bofors on a Mk.2 mount14 х 4 pcs.

127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.32 mount8 х 2 pcs.

Maneuverability

Maximum Speed20.5 knot

Turning Circle Radius640 m

Rudder Shift Time14.7 sec

Concealment

Surface Detectability Range13.1 km

Air Detectability Range9.7 km

Battle Levels

12345678910

VII

Special

California — American special premium Tier VII battleship.

USS California, the second Tennessee-class battleship, was laid down in 1916 and entered service in August 1921. Throughout her peacetime career, the ship was the flagship of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. In 1941 she was damaged by torpedoes and bombs and sank. A year later, the ship was raised and modernized, after which she returned to service and participated in combat in the Pacific Ocean, including the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Philippines campaign, and the assault on Okinawa.

California was sold for two weeks beginning 03 July 2020. She is currently available in the Premium Shop.

Modules

	Rate of Fire (shots/min)	180° Turn Time (sec)	Maximum Dispersion (m)	Maximum HE Shell Damage (HP)	Chances of HE shells causing a fire on target (%)	Maximum AP Shell Damage (HP)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
356 mm/50 Mk.7 in a turret	1.8	60	259	5,000	30	10,500		0	0

	Hit Points (HP)	Armor (mm)	Armor (mm)	Main Turrets (pcs.)	Secondary Gun Turrets (pcs.)	AA Mounts (pcs.)	Torpedo Tubes (pcs.)	Hangar Capacity (pcs.)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
California	58,300	16	457	4	8	41/14/8				0	0

	IDS_SHIP_PARAM_SUO_INCREASE_DIST (%)	Maximum Firing Range (km)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Mk7 mod. 1		0		0	0

	Maximum Speed (knot)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Propulsion: 29,500 hp	20.5		0	0

Compatible Upgrades

Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4

Player Opinion

Performance

Background

California was a Tennessee class battleship built essentially as an improved New Mexico class battleship. She was present at Pearl Harbor and slowly sank throughout the next 3 days. She was refloated and heavily modernized which included her hull being widened, replacement of her secondary battery, and a large addition of anti aircraft guns. California participated in numerous campaigns in the pacific including the Philippines campaign and the battle of Leyte Gulf.

Summary

California is essentially a New Mexico built for AA at tier VII. She is a slow ship, with a 20.5 knot speed, 14.7 second rudder shift, and 35 second reload. But her strengths are highlighted in her low 11.5km concealment, strong torpedo protection, impressive AA armament, heavy broadside, and long main battery range.

Armor

California, like most of her “standard” battleship relatives, features a 26mm bow, stern, and most of her deck. While at lower tiers this may be enough to deflect enemy fire, the normalization of the 406mm or higher guns at tier VIII and IX means that players will have to be careful in engagements against most higher tier battleships. California’s side armor is primarily protected by her massive 35mm torpedo bulge, followed by 343mm plated casemate armor above the citadel. Citadelling California is near impossible, with the citadel being located completely underwater. Overall California is fairly armored, but will struggle to tank against higher tier battleships.

Armament

California retains the same main battery as New Mexico, mounting 12 356mm guns in a 4x3 turret layout. They are one of the slowest reloading guns at tier VII, with a 34.2 second reload, however the reload is offset by her accurate 1.9 sigma, high shell alpha of 10500 damage, and one of the best at tier broadsides of 126000 damage. California also features a 19.9km base range with her main battery, one of the best at Tier VII.

Anti-Aircraft

California represents her post pearl harbor refit and thus has an extremely powerful AA suite. While she doesn't have access to Defensive AA Fire  like Florida her AA is arguably the best of the tier VII battleships. Her long range armament has an impressive 5.8km range and deals 144 hp of continuous damage. The mid range battery has a max range of 3.5km and deals a continuous damage of 382. The main bulk of California’s AA battery comes in her short range armament, with a short 2km range, California pushes out 515hp of continuous damage. To further complement her AA, California has a 5 explosion flak salvo that deals 1470 hp of damage if it hits enemy aircraft. California can fend for herself when it comes to defending against enemy aircraft, and is a ship that enemy carriers should stay away from if they want to retain their squadrons.

Battle Performance

California is an artillery platform through and through. Due to her slow 20.5 knot speed, 14.7 second rudder shift, and 35 second reload, California needs to position carefully to be effective in battle. Her lack of overmatch against most higher tier targets means she should work with other battleships to set up crossfires. If there are multiple well armored targets bow in, HE may be the better ammo choice. California is fairly stealthy when it comes to the tier VII battleships, with an 11.5km detection with Concealment Expert which enables her to sneak in close to surprise enemy cruisers and battleships, or allows her to go dark to reposition if a flank is collapsing. In the event of a torpedo attack California’s strong torpedo protection reduces the damage by 36%. If an enemy carrier is in the game, California will be able to fend for herself or support allied ships with her powerful AA compliment.

Warning: The data presented in the AA Defense sidebar section may be incorrect.
Refer to the in-game Port screens for more useful data.

Pros:

• Heavy broadside of twelve (12) 356mm main battery guns
• Excellent main battery base range of 19.9km
• Good dispersion and sigma, California can reliably land volleys at range
• All-or-nothing armor scheme ensures great protection to the ship's midsection
• The citadel block is completely submerged and very difficult to hit
• Outstanding AA defenses
• Excellent concealment with all relevant upgrades
• Tight turn radius and fairly good rudder shift for a battleship

Cons:

• Small gun caliber for a Tier 7 battleship
• Very slow main battery reload speed and traverse speed
• Extremely poor ship speed of only 20.5 knots
• Extensively covered in 26mm plating, very vulnerable to HE spam and high caliber AP overmatch
• Most of California's AA defenses are open mounts, and can be easily destroyed
  

Research

As a premium ship, California doesn't have any upgrades to research.

Optimal Configuration

Upgrades

The recommended upgrades for California are as follows:

• Slot 1: Main Armaments Modification 1 or Auxiliary Armaments Modification 1
• Slot 2: Damage Control System Modification 1 
• Slot 3: Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 or Main Battery Modification 2
• Slot 4: Damage Control System Modification 2

Commander Skills

Recommended Commander Skills
Cost (points)	Attack			Defense
1	Gun Feeder -40% time to switch shell type. ★★★	Demolition Expert +1% chance of main and secondary HE shells causing a fire +15% to the fragmentation damage area of HE ordnance when firing at submarines.	Consumable Specialist −7.5% cooldown time of all Consumables except:  Damage Control Party ,  Repair Party . ★	Emergency Repair Specialist -3% cooldown time of Damage Control Party  and Repair Party . ★★	Incoming Fire Alert Receive a warning about a salvo fired at your ship from more than 4.5 km. ★★	Preventive Maintenance −30% chance of main armament, engines, steering becoming incapacitated +15% to HP of secondary and AA guns. ★
2	Grease the Gears +20% main turret traverse speed. ★	Inertial Fuse for HE Shells +25% armor penetration of HE shells. Base fire chance reduced by half.	Brisk So long as the ship remains undetected: +10% ship speed. ★★	Vigilance +25% detection range of enemy torpedoes +7% damage reduction of Torpedo Protection System. . ★	Priority Target The detection indicator will show the number of enemies targeting you with main battery. ★★	AAA & ASW Expert +15% continuous AAA and flak damage . +10% damage inflicted by depth charges. While AAA is active: −40% ship consumables reload time.. ★
3	Super-Heavy AP Shells +7.5% AP shell damage −10% fire and flood damage received +25% fire and flood duration. ★★	Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells +20% secondary battery firing range. ★	Adrenaline Rush -0.2% reload time of all armaments per 1% HP lost +0.2% AA continuous damage per 1% HP lost. ★★★	Basics of Survivability -15% repair, fire, and flooding duration. ★★	Improved Repair Party Readiness −0.8% reload time of Repair Party each time your ship receives potential damage equal to 100% of the ship's base HP. After receiving 2M HP potential damage: +1 charge of Repair Party .. ★	Focus Fire Training In an active priority AA sector: •  +1.5% (to 5%) immediate damage. •  +25% continuous damage. •  +1 flak burst per salvo. −10% aircraft preparation time. −15% reload time of Airstrike armament.. ★
4	Furious 1st fire / flood   −10% Main battery reload time 2nd etc. (up to 5), each   −5% Main battery reload time ★★	Manual Secondary Battery Aiming −10% secondary battery reload time. −10% secondary battery dispersion. When firing at a manually selected target: dispersion gradually improves from -25% to -50%. ★	Close Quarters Combat -10% reload time of main battery if an enemy ship is spotted within secondary range. ★	Emergency Repair Expert Damage Control Party  and Repair Party : +1 charge (each). +10% action time . ★★★	Concealment Expert -10% detectability range of the ship. ★★★	Fire Prevention Expert -10% risk of fire. Three fires maximum. ★★★
Key: ★★★ - Extremely Useful      ★★ - Frequently Useful      ★ - Occasionally Useful     No stars - Not Useful

Consumables

California can equip the following consumables:

• Slot 1: Damage Control Party 
• Slot 2: Repair Party  – 4 charges
• Slot 3: Spotting Aircraft  – 4 charges or Catapult Fighter  – 4 charges

Camouflage

As a premium ship, California comes with Default permanent camouflage and a set of permanent combat bonuses.

Signals

Recommended Signal Flags
Combat
Charlie Kilo +5% ship HP; +2.5% squadron HP.	Juliet Yankee Bissotwo -20% to flooding duration. ★★★	India Yankee -20% to fire duration. ★★★	Hotel Yankee -20% to damage received when ramming the enemy. +50% to damage dealt when ramming the enemy. ★★	Victor Lima +1% chance for HE bombs and shells with a caliber above 160mm causing a fire. +0.5% chance for bombs and smaller shells causing a fire. +4% chance of torpedoes causing flooding. ★	India X-Ray +1% chance for HE bombs and shells with a caliber above 160mm causing a fire. +0.5% chance for bombs and smaller shells causing a fire. ★
Juliet Whiskey Unaone +15% chance of causing flooding.	Mike Yankee Soxisix +5% to secondary battery maximum firing range. -5% to maximum dispersion of secondary battery shells. -5% to secondary battery loading time.	November Echo Setteseven +5% continuous AA damage at all ranges. +5% damage from flak bursts. ★★	Sierra Mike +5% to the ship's maximum speed. ★★	November Foxtrot -5% reload time on all consumables. ★★	India Delta +20% to the amount of HP recovered when Repair Party  is used. ★★★
X-Ray Papa Unaone +10% action time of a Smoke Generator .	Sierra Bravo +10% action time of Hydroacoustic Search  -10% reload time of Defensive AA Fire .

Gallery

Historical Info

California, YEAR

Construction

Builder: Mare Island Naval Shipyard; Vallejo, California United States

Laid down: 23, October, 1916

Launched: 20, November, 1919

Commissioned: 10, August, 1921

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Specifications

32,300 tons displacement, standard

190.3m length

29.7m beam (Original)

35m beam (Rebuild)

9.2m draft

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Machinery

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Performance

XX knots at XX shaft horsepower

XX nm at XX knots

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Armor

Main belt:

Upper belt:

Torpedo bulkhead:

Decks: 89mm

Bulkheads:

Barbettes and Turrets: 330mm barbettes, 457mm face, 229-254mm sides, 229mm rear, 127mm roof

Conning tower: 406mm sides,

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Armament

Main

Secondary

Anti-aircraft

Torpedoes

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Aircraft

Total

Fighters

Bombers

File:PICTURE.JPG

CAPTION.

History

USS California (BB-44) was the second of two Tennessee-class battleships built for the United States Navy between her keel laying in October 1916 and her commissioning in August 1921. The Tennessee class was part of the standard series of twelve battleships built in the 1910s and 1920s, and were developments of the preceding New Mexico class. They were armed with a battery of twelve 14-inch (360 mm) guns in four three-gun turrets. California served as the flagship of the Battle Fleet in the Pacific Ocean for duration of her peacetime career. She spent the 1920s and 1930s participating in routine fleet training exercises, including the annual Fleet Problems, and cruises around the Americas and further abroad, such as a goodwill visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1925.
California was moored in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked the port, bringing the United States into World War II. The ship was moderately damaged by a pair of torpedoes and a bomb, but a fire disabled the ship's electrical system, preventing the pumps from being used to keep the ship afloat. California slowly filled with water over the following three days and eventually sank. Her crew suffered heavy casualties in the attack and four men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the attack. She was raised in April 1942, repaired and heavily rebuilt, and returned to service in January 1944.
The ship thereafter supported the amphibious operations conducted during the Pacific War, including the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign (though she was damaged in a collision with Tennessee and thus missed the Battle of Peleliu) and the Philippines campaign, during which she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait. She was hit by a kamikaze during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945, after repairs, joined the fleet supporting troops fighting on Okinawa during the Battle of Okinawa. Her crew took part in the occupation of Japan after the end of the war, and after returning to the United States via the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, was laid up in Philadelphia in 1946. She remained in the fleet's inventory until 1959, when she was broken up for scrap.

Design

====Service====

Historical Gallery

• 
  Firing a broadside
• 
  California sunk in shallow water at Pearl Harbor after the attack.
• 
  Map showing the movements of the American and Japanese fleets during the Battle of Surigao Strait

References

Wargaming

1. Armada: California - July 3, 2020

Wikipedia

1. USS California (BB-44)
2. Tennessee-class battleship

Ship Change Log

• Available for testing by supertesters in the game starting from Update 0.8.8.

Testing Changes

• Aug 15, 2019:
  • Preliminary characteristics.
• Sep 27, 2019:
  • Main battery firing range increased from 17 to 19.1 km.
  • Sigma parameter increased from 1.7 to 1.8.
• DevBlog 8 (April 17, 2020):
  • Main battery reload time increased from 30 to 34.2 s.
• DevBlog 16:
  • Fighter consumable added to the same slot as the Spotting Aircraft consumable.
  • Sigma parameter increased from 1.8 to 1.9.
  • Main battery firing range increased from 19.1 to 19.9 km.

• First appeared on sale in July 2020.
• Update 0.9.7:
  • Minor fixes to geometry and textures.
• Update 0.9.8:
  • Minor fixes to textures and geometry of the ship.
• Update 0.10.0:
  • The firing range of the secondary battery was increased to 5.6 km.
• Update 12.3:
  • Armor layout updated.
• Update 12.9:
  • Fixed textures and models for the ship.
• Update 13.1:
  • Main Battery reload time reduced from 34.2 to 32.5 s.
  • Changed engine parameters: the acceleration time for forward and reverse movement was significantly reduced.
    • The new acceleration settings are similar to those found on Kansas, Minnesota and Vermont.

Ships of U.S.A.

Battleships