IRN Granada (BC-1927)
Iberias shipbuilding industry was very capable of building the hulls of warships and even some lighter armour through to about 5" thickness but the heavy plate armour and heavy guns with turrets were beyond their capabilities. Knowing this, the Iberian Navy saw the end of the First World War and the subsequent sale of a lot of the old dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts as a market place for the future of the Iberian Navy. The ships purchased could provide both the large guns and turrets, and also the heavy plate armour that could be stripped off the ships and reworked to fit the new ships. A pair of the old pre-dreadnoughts of the King Edward VII class were purchased for just those reasons. These were the oldest ships purchased but had guns that were still being used in the UK battleships through to the Neptune type of 1911-12. While the ships that the Iberians would be building would have older 12" guns, the turrets and barbettes would be modernised to increase the elevation of the guns and thus their range while a new shell to fit the 12" guns being used from both UK and Germanic States sources was developed to ease replenishment.
The Granada was built with assistance from the Vickers-Armstrongs consortium, while the armament and armour as stated above was sourced from the stripping of the two King Edward VII class ships. Vickers new of the trials for the new dual purpose weapons that was being undertaken at various UK manufacturers and advised the Iberian Navy to leave space to upgrade the ships with the new weapons at a later date. The Iberians listened and the ship was fitted with a dozen 5.5" guns on single mounts till the new weapons were available. The 5.5" would be used on a pair of light cruisers in the future. The final design replicated a lot of the new design traits that the UK had used in building and designing the G3/N3 ships that turned into the Nelson class by treaty. Transom stern, large sheer forward to improve seakeeping at speed in the Atlantic, unit machinery distribution, the first use of AA directors to help (what was the original 4x4" AA guns) the dual purpose guns and the octuple 2pd AA guns. Aircraft handling facilities made their debut on Iberian ships with this ship. Twin 20mm light AA guns were added in the later 1930's. The ship was due for some more modifications and rebuilding in 1942 but the war intervened and the ship went through the Second World War as shown above.
| Displacement | 30,500 tons std, 36,750 tons full load |
| Length | 741 ft |
| Breadth | 90 ft |
| Draught | 27 ft |
| Machinery | 4 shaft geared turbines, 140,000shp |
| Speed | 31 knots |
| Range | 6500 at 16 knots |
| Armour | 9" side, 4" deck, 12-8" turrets |
| Armament | 8 x 12" (4x2) 16 x 4.5" (8x2) 48 x 2pd (6x8) 16 x 20mm (8x2) |
| Aircraft | 3 |
| Complement | 1100 |
| Notes | IRN Granada |
Granada under builders trials, note the interested RN observers. The Iberians were building ships during a time when the Naval Treaties forbade the Major Powers from building battleships. King Edward VII class ready to strip for the parts for the Granada.