 Five years later — with the First World War raging in Europe — the political climate had changed . A tentative five @-@ year program put together in October and supported by President Woodrow Wilson called for ten battleships , six battlecruisers and ten destroyers to be completed by 1922 . This was submitted to Congress in December 1915 . On 2 June 1916 , the House of Representatives passed the bill in a modified form , replacing five of the battleships with battlecruisers . On 29 August 1916 , the Senate also passed an altered bill , keeping the original number of ships but stipulating that the program be completed in three years ( FY 1917 – 19 ) . The first four ships were paid for in FY 1917 , the fifth in FY 1918 , and the last in FY 1919 . 
