So, a little outline of USN battleship history:
Pre-Dreadnought - Four 12" main guns, smaller caliber secondary and tertiary batteries, SLOW; scrapped due to Washington Treaty;
Dreadnought - More numerous 12" main guns, quick-firing (QF) anti-torpedo boat and destroyer batteries, somewhat less slow (19-21 knots, mixed vertical triple expansion and turbine engines), incremental armor for whole ship; USS South Carolina started building before HMS Dreadnought, but was completed a little later; all but one scrapped due to Washington Treaty;
Super Dreadnought - 14" and QF guns, incremental armor for whole ship, 19-21 knots, vertical triple expansion engines;
Super Dreadnought "Standards" - 14" or 16" and QF guns, all-or-nothing armor (essential areas maximum armor, other areas structural general purpose steel only), all rated for 21 Kn speed (similar enough to be used interchangeably in squadrons), all but USS Oklahoma had turbine engines; pre-Washington Treaty;
Fast Battleships - 16" main guns, 5"/38 dual purpose guns for AA and anti-destroyer, all-or-nothing armor, modern anti-torpedo defense systems; 27-28 Kn for the North Carolina and South Dakota classes, >30 Kn for the Iowa class (these were the only USN battleships fast enough to steam with USN aircraft carriers), all had/have turbine engines; post-Washington Treaty.
The USS Texas is a Super Dreadnought, 14" guns, incremental armor, and vertical triple expansion engines. She and class leader USS New York were the only USN Super Dreadnoughts with incremental armor. She was commissioned into service in 1914, ~6 months before WW1 started. By WW2, the New York class were deemed unsuitable for combat in the Pacific, so she was kept in the Atlantic until 1945.
Sadly (IMO), all of the Standards - most of which were attacked and damaged/sunk in Pearl Harbor - were converted into razor blades, as the metaphor goes. Dreadnought USS Arkansas, which also fought mostly in the Atlantic, was sunk in the Bikini Atoll bomb tests.
So USS Texas represents a LOT of naval history.
