The "Indiana" class was very controversial at the time of its approval by the United States Congress. A policy board convened by the Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy came up with an ambitious 15-year naval construction program on 16 July 1889, three years after the and the were authorized. The battleships in their plan would include ten first-rate long-range battleships with a top speed and a steaming radius of at — maximum. These ocean-going ships were envisioned as a possible fleet in being, a fleet capable of raiding an enemy's home ports and intended to deter powerful warships from ranging too far from home. Twenty-five short-range second-rate battleships would provide home defense in both the Atlantic and Pacific and support the faster and larger long-range vessels. With a range of roughly at 10 knots and a draft of , they would roam from the St. Lawrence River in the north to the Windward Islands and Panama in the south and would be able to enter all the ports in the southern United States.