Nevada was the first severly damaged battleship to be salvaged. On 12 February 1942 she was refloated and slightly repaired at Pearl Harbor before leaving for Puget Sound Navy Yard on 22 April. She traded in her 5in/51cal and 5in/25cal guns for eight twin 5in/38cal dual purpose guns, four quad 40mm mounts and sixteen 20mm Oerlikons. To compensate for this increase in weight, among other things, had her large mainmast reduced to a single stump mast, a slightly reduced load of main battery ammunition, and the removal of the turret mounted aircraft catapult. Another modification was the addition of an angled funnel extension which gave her a unique look among the American battleships.

In December 1942, Nevada finally left Puget Sound and participated in the capture of Attu in Alaska betwen 11-18 May 1943. In early July, she transfered to the Atlantic and was modernized again at Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, and in April 1944 sailed to England in preparation for the invasion of Europe in France. During the invasion, Nevada was to provide fire support at Utah Beach, while the battleships Texas and Arkansas were to be at Omaha Beach. Her initial job was pre-invasion bombardment and once the landings were under way she would provide fire support for the remainder of the time. She operated off the Normandy coast between 6 to 7 June and on 25 June she was at Cherbourg, France, to bombard German shore batteries. There were about 27 close calls from the fire of the German batteries but none made their mark on Nevada.

With the capture of Cherbourg complete, she again provided pre-invasion bombardment and fire support for the invasion of southern France at Toulon on 15 August against German shore batteries made up of guns taken from French battleships. Once her fire support duties were over in France she sailed back to the east coast for more refit before transfering back to the Pacific since there was little need for battleships in the Atlantic any more.

Once again in the Pacific, Neavada was again used for shore bombardment and support for the invasion of Iwo Jima between 16 February 1945 to 7 March. She left Iwo Jima and soon after prepared for her next role at Okinawa, the last major amphibious invasion of the war. She arrived on 24 March and soon began her bombardment and in the meantime massive amounts of kamikazes targeted the invading forces gathered at Okinawa. On 27 March, one suicide plane got through the AA defenses and smashed into Nevada killing eleven men and damaging a main battery turret. About a week later on 5 April, another two men were killed from a shore battery hit. She provided support at Okinawa for months, not leaving until 30 Juneand then between 10 July to 7 August she operated off the Japanese home islands.

After the war ended on 15 August, she participated in occupation duty in Toyko Bay. Now with her at an end, Nevada was used as a target ship for Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. She survived both the 1 July and 25 July 1946 atomic tests and returned to Pearl Harbor for decommissioning on 29 August 1946. She was eventually again used as a target ship and this time was sunk as a target for naval gunfire and aerial torpedoes on 31 July 1948. She was awarded seven battle stars for her service in World War II.