USS New Jersey will soon get a big upgrade: This March, the USS New Jersey will once again be on the move following nearly three decades of museum duty.

However, the mighty Iowa-class battleship will not be returning to service.

Instead, the ship will be towed to the Philadelphia dry dock for preservation efforts. The whopping 45,000-ton World War II-era battleship will be dry-docked once again in the same berth where she was constructed back in the early 1940s.

Last month, the Homeport Alliance non-profit organization announced that New Jersey would undergo a series of maintenance and repair efforts for the first time in more than thirty years.

Hopefully, the WWII-relic will be around for tours for many years to come.

Introducing the Iowa-class battleships:

Right before the Second World War kicked off, U.S. officials were growing increasingly concerned with Japan’s battleship fleet capabilities. As part of the Navy’s War Plan Orange, planners determined that the service’s standard fleet of 21-knot cruisers would not be fast enough to effectively confront Japan’s counterparts including the Kongo-class battlecruisers.

Around this time, the “escalator clause” of the Second London Naval Treaty enabled signatories to increase the tonnage of their military ships from the initial 35,000-ton limit to 45,000 tons. These events culminated in the design of the Iowa-class battleships in the late 1930’s.

The Navy originally planned to acquire six Iowa-class ships, however, four were ultimately constructed. USS Iowa was the first to launch in 1942, followed by USS New Jersey later that year, USS Wisconsin 1943 and USS Missouri in 1944.

Each Iowa-class battleship was equipped with 16-inch guns, divided amongst two turrets which could fire a 2,700-pound projectile within a range of more than 24 nautical miles. Notably, the “three-gun” turrets positioned on each Iowa-class vessel was capable of firing any combination of its guns, including a broadside of all nine.

USS New Jersey:

When USS New Jersey was commissioned at the tail end of the Second World War, she immediately deployed to Guam and later Okinawa where she participated in critical raids. Later, New Jersey would operate in the Korean War prior to her first decommissioning.

In the late 1960’s, she was reactivated to support U.S. troops in Vietnam. More than one decade later, New Jersey would again be revived and modernized to partake in U.S. operations in Lebanon in the 1980’s. Notably, New Jersey represents the most decorated Iowa-class battleship, particularly for her role in the Vietnam War.

Today, all four Iowa-class battleships have been relegated to museum duty. USS Missouri is located in Pearl Harbor, USS Iowa in Los Angeles, USS Wisconsin in Virginia and USS New Jersey in Delaware.

Unfortunately, New Jersey’s long stint in Delaware has resulted in several issues, including rotting wood on her deck. The new venture to further preserve the WWII-era relic is an important milestone for New Jersey.

As detailed by New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs commissioner Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver last month, "This is a very exciting day for the Trust and Battleship New Jersey who are once again teaming up to preserve one of the most treasured and widely visited historic places in New Jersey, this grant round is going to breathe new life into the Battleship New Jersey's ongoing preservation work as well as to other heritage tourism sites throughout the state."

About the Author: Maya Carlin 

Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.