“New ammo for the 16 inch guns and a panoply of offensive and defensive missiles.”
Scratch the guns, their utility is so diminished as to be passed.
I like the idea of a new power plant. Add Aegis and 252 VLS tubes and I’m in.
I dunno - some of the sub-caliber sabot options, as well as multiple-warhead prototypes for those guns are worth considering.
For making liberal heads explode i would take some initial plans of the Kriegsmarine H44 class battleship, keep one battery of the 20’ guns but build a railgun AND a Metalstorm style launcher of just off the top of my head 20 to 30mm rounds, a rate of fire far faster than any gatling guns but designed to ward of swarms of anything from speedboats to thousands of aerial drones.
The Kriegsmarine H44 was bigger than the Iowa Class technically to rival the Montana Class. Bigger than the Musashi.