Despite these cruiser-like characteristics, and the U.S. Navy's insistence on their status as cruisers, the "Alaska" class has been frequently described as battlecruisers. The official navy magazine "All Hands" said "The "Guam" and her sister ship "Alaska" are the first American battle cruisers ever to be completed as such." Author Chris Knupp noted that while "other nations fulfilled the battlecruiser role by designing vessels like battleships, but stripped of armor and other features to gain speed", the United States "fulfilled the battlecruiser role by creating a larger, more powerful heavy cruiser... design already offered less armor and higher speed, but by enlarging the ship they gained the heavier firepower". The "Alaska"s percentage of armor tonnage, 28.4%, was slightly less than that of fast battleships; the British "King George V" class, the American "Iowa" class, and the battlecruiser/fast battleship all had armor percentages between 32 and 33%, whereas the "Lexington"-class battlecruiser design had a nearly identical armor percentage of 28.5%. In fact, older battlecruisers, such as (19.9%), had a significantly lower percentage. Armament-wise, they had much larger guns than contemporary heavy cruisers; while the "Baltimore" class only carried nine 8"/55 caliber Marks 12 and 15 guns, the "Alaska" class carried nine 12"/50 caliber guns that were as good as, if not superior to, the old 14"/50 caliber gun used on the U.S. Navy's pre-treaty battleships.