Shipbucket

Historical Context:

In 1941, the government of Argentina released a law to acquire the funds to purchase new naval units to put at service of the ARA (Armada de la República Argentina). One part of the funds was to be used in the construction of a new battleship class to serve alongside the old Rivadavia-class battleships, Rivadavia and Moreno. One Commander from the navy called Osvaldo J. González, in 1943, proposed the characteristics the new battleship class needed in that time to serve in the Argentine Navy.

He proposed a battleship based on the Italian Littorio-class battleships. She would need to carry nine main guns of 381mm on a 3x3 setup, a secondary armament of 12 pieces of 152mm in a 2x6 setup, an anti-aircraft system of 12x89mm in dual mounts, 16 of 37mm in quad mounts and 16 of 12.7mm in quad mounts. All of this in a hull of 238 meters x 31 meters, with an armor belt of 356mm and a deck of 200mm (150mm+50mm), while the armor of the main turrets was to be 381mm.

The propulsion should be enough to be capable of navigate at a speed of 30 knots and carry a central hangar alongside two catapults to launch three aircrafts, with a standard displacement of 37000 tons. She most likely was planned to be built in an Italian shipyard, like the heavy cruisers of the Veinticinco de Mayo-class was built in Livorno by OTO, but due to the current war at that time in Europe and the consequent cancelation of the plan, she was not built.