 The Lexington @-@ class battlecruisers were officially the only class of battlecruiser to ever be ordered by the United States Navy . While these six vessels were requested in 1911 as a reaction to the building by Japan of the Kongō class , the potential use for them in the U.S. Navy came from a series of studies by the Naval War College which stretched over several years and predated the existence of the first battlecruiser , HMS Invincible ( a series of proposed battlecruiser designs was in fact submitted to the General Board in 1909 but was not approved for construction ) . The fact they were not approved by Congress at the time of their initial request was due to political , not military considerations . 
