Image: New Jersey Underway

Description: Recommissioned for Vietnam, the New Jersey (BB-62) was little modified. She is shown off Oahu, Hawaii, 11 September 1968. Although she appears festooned with radio antennas, in fact her communication suit was extremely austure. It symbolized a key problem of the reserve fleet. Communication equipment changes relativley rapidly. Ships otherwise quite usable may be entirely unable to communicate with more modern craft unless they are given entirely new radio systems. The other major modification was for self defense: an early version of SHORTSTOP, a combination jammer and chaff-launcher. The ULQ-6B jammer was located in the box atop her foremast, its antennas projecting out on both sides. When the New Jersey was refitted again in 1981-82, the box was retained as a base for a new SLQ-32 system. It was not particularly conveient, and the other refitted battleships have a more streamlined ECM housing. The New Jersey had been laid up with her 40mm mounts in place. All were removed when she was recommissioned, but the foreward gun tubs (on the 01 level), painted white, were used by the crew as swimming pools. Note that the ship retained her old (and quite obsolescent) SPS-12 air-search radar.
Title: New Jersey Underway
Credit: navsource.org, Specifically
Author: Official US Navy Photograph from the U.S. Naval Photographic Center, courtesy of Robert M. Cieri. Text courtesy of U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No