Opinions on if the Alaska class cruiser was obsolete before being completed.

No, rather take the approach that they were the ultimate evolution of the gun cruiser. At that they were ideal.

IIRC, they provided less capability than a BB but at not much less cost to build and man. By the time they joined the fleet, they(like the fast BB's) were expensive carrier escorts. Having said that, I always had a soft spot for them.

I guess it depends on how you look at them

Always had a soft spot for them though

They are beautiful ships.

They were designed to face a threat that never really materialized. Lore has it that they were built out of penis-envy for the German pocket battleships and British battlecruisers. Along with alarmist rumors of German and Japanese BC development. When it became clear that these threats were blown out of proportion, they fell back nicely on the CV protection role. Something more akin to what a CA is supposed to do.

Hindsight being 20/20, we might have gotten more for our money by building more contemporary cruisers. But I don't think that's the same as them being obsolete. Rather, they were almost "too good" for what they ultimately ended up doing.

And yes, they were very sexy.

- John