I think you’re referring to Starblazers. In Japan, it’s called something like Space Battleship Yamato. In the show, the UN (or whatever) raises the Yamato from the ocean floor and refits it as a space battleship to meet threats to the Earth. That show was huge in Japan. There have been several additional movies and series of anime that advances the story after the original A few years ago, they did a live-action movie called Space Battleship Yamato.
But I’m like you. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes and it’s my store of trivial knowledge about cartoons and science-fiction that I’m able to answer at all!
If you’re into history, there’s a movie the Japanese maid about the _real_ Yamato’s final mission against the US Navy you may want to check out.
Another popular anime that came to the US in the early 80’s was called Robotech. It was an amalgamation of three different anime series artificially strung together as one long series. The first third of the series was much like Starblazers with a space battleship (that could transform into a giant space robot!) full of fighters that went out to defeat an alien menace.
Star Blazers was one of my favorite cartoons and still is even though it hasn’t aged well.
Robotech has held up a little better and I will binge watch some every now and then.
There is a lady at my office named Dana Sterling. She does not resemble the cartoon version. Every now and then I mention something about hover tanks. She says she will watch it someday.
I asked her to be kind since it was an 80s Japanese import.