Identify all US Navy warships by class and year of first production, starting with ships from years 1936 through 1950.

Below is a class-level inventory of U.S. Navy combat warship classes whose first completed/commissioned vessel entered service from 1936 through 1950. I interpret “first production” as the year the lead ship was first commissioned, which is the most useful operational date for a strategy-game or force-development timeline. It excludes auxiliaries, landing craft, yard craft, and most converted merchant vessels; it includes fleet combatants and major wartime escorts.

Because the U.S. Navy’s official class-leader convention follows the first ship authorized—not necessarily the first ship commissioned—some sources can label a class differently. The table uses the conventional U.S. class names.¹

Surface combatants

The practical progression is visible here: prewar destroyer subclasses gave way to the highly successful Fletcher, then the more heavily armed Allen M. Sumner and longer-range Gearing classes; cruisers shifted from treaty-limited designs toward large wartime light and heavy cruisers. The North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa fast-battleship programs formed the final U.S. battleship generation; Missouri was the last U.S. battleship commissioned, in 1944.²³⁴

Aircraft carriers

A few important edge cases:

• USS Wasp (CV-7), commissioned in 1940, was essentially a one-ship class, so it is included conceptually as a distinct carrier design even though it had no sister ships.
• The Bogue class originated as converted C3 cargo hulls, while the Casablanca and Commencement Bay classes were purpose-built escort carriers.
• The Independence class converted light-cruiser hulls into fast light carriers, making it a different proposition from slow convoy-escort CVEs.
• The large Midway class represents the late-war step toward the postwar supercarrier model. Wartime U.S. carrier development included Yorktown, Independence, Essex, Midway, and the multiple escort-carrier classes.⁴

Submarines

The key operational lineage is Porpoise → Salmon/Sargo → Seadragon/Tambor → Gato → Balao → Tench. Gato, Balao, and Tench were the mass wartime fleet-submarine families central to the Pacific submarine campaign; the latter two improved depth capability and incorporated production-oriented refinements. The broad WWII class listings identify Balao as beginning in 1942 and place the U.S. wartime submarine classes in this larger fleet-submarine development arc.⁴

Destroyer escorts and small combatants

Destroyer escorts were purpose-designed for convoy and antisubmarine warfare rather than fleet-destroyer work. The six principal wartime DE classes were Evarts, Buckley, Cannon, Edsall, Rudderow, and John C. Butler. They differed substantially in propulsion: Evarts and Cannon used diesel-electric machinery; Buckley and Rudderow used turbo-electric propulsion; Edsall used geared diesel; and John C. Butler used geared turbines. USS Evarts was the first vessel commissioned as a U.S. Navy destroyer escort, entering service in April 1943.⁵

1936–1950 production timeline

Scope notes

• This is a class list, not a list of every individual hull. The United States built an enormous number of individual warships during the period, especially Fletcher/Gearing destroyers, Gato/Balao/Tench submarines, escort carriers, destroyer escorts, minesweepers, patrol vessels, amphibious ships, and auxiliaries.
• The table emphasizes ships normally treated as warships: capital ships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, destroyer escorts, and patrol frigates.
• It does not separately enumerate every specialist type, such as minelayers, minesweepers, submarine chasers, PT boats, gunboats, riverine craft, seaplane tenders, amphibious warfare vessels, or wartime conversions. Including all of those would produce a much larger and more ambiguous list because many had overlapping subclasses and noncombat auxiliary designations.
• The wartime force expanded rapidly: by 14 August 1945 the Navy recorded 23 battleships, 28 fleet carriers, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, 377 destroyers, and 232 submarines in its force-level accounting.⁶

^{78910111213141516171819202122232425262728}

Revise your last response to omit those with limited runs, or otherwise niche.

Here is the streamlined list: U.S. Navy warship classes first entering production/service from 1936–1950, limited to classes with substantial serial production and broad fleet relevance. I omitted one-offs, tiny runs, experimental/coastal types, specialized late-war cruisers, patrol frigates, and small/limited escort-carrier groups.

“Year” means the first lead ship commissioned, rather than the year Congress authorized it or the keel was laid.

Major surface combatants

The Benson/Gleaves distinction is sometimes blurred in general histories because their hulls and machinery arrangements were closely related, but the Navy recognizes them as separate class families. For a simplified production model, treating them as one “Benson/Gleaves” destroyer generation is reasonable.²⁹³⁰

Aircraft carriers

For an operationally focused force roster, the essential carrier sequence is Yorktown → Essex → Midway for fleet carriers, supplemented by Independence light carriers and Casablanca/Commencement Bay escort carriers. The Essex class was the Navy’s dominant wartime fleet-carrier program, while the Casablanca class’s 50 ships made it the major escort-carrier mass-production program.²⁹

Submarines

The key research-and-production lineage is Porpoise/Sargo → Tambor → Gato → Balao → Tench. If you want a very strict high-volume-only list, begin submarines with Gato; the Gato, Balao, and Tench families are the practical wartime production core.²⁹

Escorts

Destroyer escorts were neither miniature fleet destroyers nor simple patrol boats: they were designed chiefly for mid-ocean convoy defense and antisubmarine warfare. The mass-program DE set is therefore Evarts, Buckley, Cannon, Edsall, and John C. Butler; all were built in large numbers during 1943–45.³¹³²

Recommended final roster

For a clean, non-niche production roster—appropriate for a high-level WWII naval-tech tree or strategic force plan—I would use these classes only:

For an even more aggressively simplified model, reduce the list to the dominant mass-production families:

• Destroyers: Benson/Gleaves, Fletcher, Allen M. Sumner, Gearing
• Cruisers: Cleveland, Baltimore
• Fleet carriers: Essex, Midway
• Escort carriers: Casablanca, Commencement Bay
• Submarines: Gato, Balao, Tench
• Destroyer escorts: Evarts, Buckley, Cannon, Edsall, John C. Butler

That version best represents the industrially significant American naval output that decided the late Pacific War and shaped the immediate postwar fleet. The 1945 Navy force reflected this enormous construction surge, including 28 fleet carriers, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, 377 destroyers, and 232 submarines.³³

In a similar fashion, identify all US main tank models among light, medium, and heavy tanks, from 1936 to 1950.

From 1936 through 1950, the United States fielded a relatively short sequence of mainstream, standardized tank models: M2/M3/M5/M24 light tanks; M2/M3/M4 medium tanks; M26 Pershing and M46 Patton in the heavy-to-medium transition. The M4 Sherman was overwhelmingly the dominant wartime U.S. medium tank, while the M3/M5 Stuart family and M24 Chaffee were the principal light-tank lines. ³⁴³⁵³⁶

As with the revised ship list, I omit short-run, prototype, experimental, specialist, and clearly niche models—such as the M6 heavy tank, M7 medium tank, M22 Locust airborne tank, T14, T20/T23/T25/T26 prototype series, T29/T30/T32 heavy tanks, and tank-destroyer/self-propelled-gun vehicles.

Core production roster

Light tanks

The M2 → M3 Stuart → M5 Stuart → M24 Chaffee chain is the clean light-tank progression. The M3 and M5 were still useful as reconnaissance vehicles, but their 37 mm guns left them outmatched against better-armored German vehicles by 1942–43. The M24 was developed specifically to replace them, entered service late in 1944, and mounted a 75 mm gun using the same ammunition ballistics as the Sherman’s M3 gun. ³⁵³⁶

For a simplified HOI4-style mapping, the M2 fits a 1936 light chassis, the Stuart family a 1940–41 chassis, and the Chaffee a 1943–44 light chassis.

Medium tanks

The M2 Medium → M3 Lee/Grant → M4 Sherman sequence matters more than the individual M2 model’s combat record. The M2 was first produced in 1939, but only 112 M2/M2A1 tanks were completed and none served overseas in combat. Its main importance was industrial and developmental: the M3 replaced its planned mass-production order, and the M3 in turn served as the direct stopgap before the M4. ³⁷³⁸

The M3 Lee/Grant was a real mass-production model but an interim solution: its 75 mm gun sat in a hull sponson with limited traverse, while a separate turret carried a 37 mm gun. That let the Army and industry field a 75 mm-armed medium tank quickly, before the fully turreted M4 was ready.

The M4 Sherman is the model that should represent U.S. medium-tank production from 1942 onward. More than 50,000 were produced between 1942 and 1945, and it became the most commonly used American tank of World War II. The M4 family included major production variants—not separate basic tank models—including the M4, M4A1, M4A2, M4A3, M4A4, and M4A6, plus 75 mm, 76 mm, and 105 mm armament variants. ³⁴³⁹

Heavy tanks

The U.S. heavy-tank story is exceptionally narrow during this period. The M6 was built only in a run of 40 and was not accepted for large-scale production, so it does not meet the “non-niche” rule. The M26 Pershing was the only U.S. heavy tank used in WWII combat, arriving in Europe in early 1945; it was later redesignated a medium tank as U.S. classifications evolved. ⁴⁰⁴¹

The M46 Patton began as an upgraded Pershing: it retained the 90 mm gun concept but used a more powerful and reliable engine and improved transmission. The Army assigned it the M46 designation and Patton name in November 1949; it subsequently served in the Korean War alongside remaining Shermans and Pershings. ⁴²⁴³

Recommended final list

For a clean historical production or HOI4 technology roster, use these nine base models:

A more aggressively streamlined force-development ladder would be:

• Light: M2 Light → M3/M5 Stuart → M24 Chaffee
• Medium: M2 Medium → M3 Lee/Grant → M4 Sherman → M46 Patton
• Heavy: M26 Pershing only

That framing preserves every U.S. tank model that had sustained production and broad Army relevance while avoiding designs that were technically standardized but too limited to represent a meaningful production generation. The one classification caveat is the Pershing: treat it as heavy when modeling its 1945 introduction, but as medium when modeling the late-1940s/early-Korean-War U.S. inventory. ⁴⁰⁴³

^{444546474849505152535455565758596061}

If there had been a heavy tank model in 1940, what are some likely names it would have gotten, based on historical trends?

The historically strongest answer is that a U.S. heavy tank introduced in 1940 would most likely have been called Heavy Tank M6 once standardized, with Heavy Tank T1 as its prototype/development designation. That is not merely plausible alternate history: the U.S. Army approved the real 50-ton Heavy Tank T1 project in June 1940, and the production-standard variants became the M6 and M6A1 in May 1942.⁶²⁶³

Most likely designations

The Army did not maintain separate, tidy model-number sequences for light, medium, and heavy tanks. An “M” number was a standardized item designation across Army materiel, so the historical heavy tank skipped to M6 rather than becoming “M1 Heavy.” Sources describe the real decision as avoiding confusion with already-existing M1 tank designations.⁶⁴⁶⁵

What “T1” and “M6” mean

The most accurate 1940 sequence would be:

1. Heavy Tank T1 — original approved development/prototype program
2. Heavy Tank T1E1 — first experimental modification, such as electric drive
3. Heavy Tank T1E2 — alternate configuration, historically the cast-hull torque-converter version
4. Heavy Tank T1E3 — alternate configuration, historically the welded-hull torque-converter version
5. Heavy Tank M6 — standard-accepted production form of T1E2
6. Heavy Tank M6A1 — standard-accepted modified production form of T1E3

In U.S. nomenclature, T meant a trial/development design, E signified an experimental modification, and M marked a standardized model. The “A1” suffix then identified an approved modification of that standardized item.⁶⁶⁶⁷

So, if your alternate-history condition is that the program reaches production two years earlier, the cleanest naming would be:

1940: Heavy Tank M6\
1940 or 1941: Heavy Tank M6A1

That preserves the real-world identity of the project while simply accelerating its design, testing, and standardization schedule.

Names versus nicknames

A 1940 U.S. tank would probably not have received a formal personal name at first. During the early war years, Army documentation normally preferred functional nomenclature—“Light Tank M3,” “Medium Tank M4,” or “Heavy Tank M6”—rather than the later popular nicknames.

Possible informal or postwar-style names, from most to least plausible:

If you want the vehicle to remain closest to historical U.S. practice, write it as Heavy Tank M6 in orders of battle, production records, research trees, and unit equipment tables. Use a nickname only as an unofficial troop or press name.

Best alternate-history option

For a historically grounded 1940 heavy-tank branch:

The real 1940 requirement initially contemplated a 50-ton heavy tank and briefly considered a multi-turret layout before the program shifted toward a conventional single-turret design. In reality the project was approved in 1940 but did not standardize until 1942, and only 40 M6-family vehicles were completed; an alternate timeline with earlier industrial urgency, clearer requirements, and Armored Force support could credibly turn it into an M6 heavy-tank production program by 1940–41.⁶⁸⁶⁹⁶²

^{70717273747576}

Give the same treatment to US combat aircraft models during this period.

From 1936 through 1950, the United States produced a broad but identifiable set of mainstream combat-aircraft families for the Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces and Navy/Marine Corps. The core sequence is prewar radial-engine fighters and medium bombers, mass-produced WWII piston aircraft, then early jet fighters and strategic bombers at the end of the period.

As with the tank and ship lists, this is a non-niche production roster: I retain aircraft produced in substantial numbers, used operationally at scale, or crucial to the transition into a new combat-aircraft generation. I omit prototypes, small-run specialist types, most one-off naval variants, trainers, transports, liaison aircraft, and experimental jet programs.

Army and Air Force fighters

The wartime production core is P-40, P-38, P-47, and P-51. The P-40 reached 13,738 aircraft by the end of production in November 1944; it ranked behind the P-51 and P-47 among major American fighter-production programs. The P-38 program completed 10,038 aircraft, including 500 photo-reconnaissance aircraft. ⁷⁷⁷⁸

The P-51 is particularly important because it paired high performance with escort range: it could accompany U.S. heavy bombers to Berlin and back, changing the feasibility of daylight strategic bombing in Europe. ⁷⁹⁸⁰

Army and Air Force bombers

The dominant WWII bomber roster is B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26, A-20, A-26, and B-29. The B-24 was the largest U.S. aircraft production program, with roughly 18,500 built; the B-25 approached 10,000 aircraft and served in every theater; the B-29 was both the Pacific strategic-bombing aircraft and the type used for the first atomic attacks. ⁸¹⁸²⁸³

The B-17 deserves separate recognition despite lower production than the B-24: developed in the 1930s, it operated in every WWII theater and became a central symbol of the U.S. daylight heavy-bomber offensive. ⁷⁹

Navy and Marine fighters

For a strict “high-volume-only” list, start the naval-fighter branch with the F4F Wildcat, then move to F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair, followed by the F9F Panther jet. The Wildcat was the key Navy fighter in the early Pacific war, whereas the Hellcat and Corsair supplied the superior late-war carrier and Marine fighter-bomber capability. The Corsair prototype flew in 1940, with first production F4U-1 delivery in July 1942; it ultimately became one of the most capable carrier fighter-bombers of the war. ⁸⁴⁸⁵

Navy and Marine strike aircraft

The principal carrier-strike progression is SBD Dauntless → SB2C Helldiver for dive bombing and TBD Devastator → TBF/TBM Avenger for torpedo bombing. The SBD was still decisive in the early carrier war—especially 1942—while the Avenger became a durable multirole torpedo-bomber, anti-submarine, and conventional-attack platform. The Navy’s historical designation catalogue identifies the SBD Dauntless, SB2C Helldiver, SB2U Vindicator, and related Navy aircraft families. ⁸⁶⁸⁵

Recommended final roster

For a clean 1936–1950 U.S. combat-aircraft production ladder—one suitable for a historical technology tree, industrial plan, or HOI4-style equipment framework—use the following models.

If you want the same aggressively simplified approach used for your final naval roster, reduce it further:

• Army fighter: P-40 → P-38/P-47 → P-51 → P-80 → F-84 → F-86
• Tactical bomber: A-20 → B-25/B-26 → A-26 → B-45
• Strategic bomber: B-17/B-24 → B-29 → B-36/B-50
• Carrier fighter: F4F → F6F/F4U → F9F
• Carrier strike: SBD → TBF/TBM → SB2C → AD
• Maritime patrol: PB4Y → PBM

That reduced model retains the aircraft families that mattered most to U.S. industrial output, combat power, carrier warfare, strategic bombing, and the transition from WWII piston engines to early jet aviation.

^{87888990919293949596979899100101102103104105}