Constitution

Ballistics

Armor Model

Overview

In the mid-1910s, the U.S. Navy leadership considered a fleet enhancement program that included the construction of so-called scout cruisers. It was assumed that such ships would be fast and lightly armored or completely unarmored. One variant of such a ship was the battle scout—essentially a battlecruiser but with only cruiser armor. In the fall of 1915, at least five draft designs of such a "battle scout" with displacements ranging from 28,000 to 32,000 tons were proposed. The ship would have a 127 mm armor belt and eight main battery guns. A distinctive feature of these designs was an elongated flush-deck hull with pronounced sheer, causing the stern to drop by one deck height. The project was not realized, and further refinements led to the creation of the Lexington-class battlecruisers.