Posted on 04/14/2021 6:04:10 AM PDT by Onthebrink
I read that the Air Force was behind getting those battleships into action during the Vietnam war. Why risk planes and pilots to bomb infrastructure 20 miles inland from the coast, when a battlewagon could lob 1-ton shells, with accuracy, that same distance?
Here are the crew manning figures for the USS Missouri:
World War II - 134 officers, 2400 enlisted
1986-1992 - 65 officers, 1450 enlisted
https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/the-ship/ship-characteristics/#
Meanwhile, the Nimitz Class aircraft carriers can accommodate 3,184 personnel (with 203 officers), 2,800 aircrew (with 366 officers) and 70 flag (with 25 officers).
Additionally, I don’t think the damaged 16” gun turret on the USS Iowa was ever repaired.
Weren’t those 16” guns on the Iowa class battleships?
Wife and I toured the Missouri at Pearl Harbor a few years ago.
It had just been freshly painted and looked like brand new...
I looked it up and 16” is right.
https://www.usswisconsin.org/wp/pictures/big-guns/
She will never be reactivated.
The cost to bring up to standard is prohibitive.
All new power plant.
All new electrical and plumbing.
All new electronics and radars.
VLS
All new crew accommodations.
Essentially they would have to take it apart and put it back together...just to have a 75yr old ship.
Better to build new.
“Given the reality of modern technology which includes but is not limited to pinpoint surveillance and positioning, lethal stealthy drones launched from land, planes, cruise missiles and submarines as well as stealthy modern long range missiles, the era of surface combatants is over. “
I realize that is your opinion.
But you should realize it’s not shared by any navy in the world. Not one.
I agree better to build new but from the crap the navy has trotted out the last ten years the question is could they even do it and make it work? Aside from the long in the tooth Arleigh Burke class of DD’s and the cold war era Ticonderoga class cruisers, the last Nimitz carriers Reagan and Bush, the America class helicopter/amphib carriers and some subs everything else has been a waste of money and doesn’t work.
The LCS ships have been a complete disaster, the Ford class carriers where the weapons elevators don’t work most of the time and we can’t even design our new class of frigates they appear to be an Italian design. We wore out the F-14 and A-6’s without real replacements and now have F-18’s doing jobs they were not designed to do and in all cases they have very short legs with roughly a 650 mile combat radius which puts the carriers well within land based anti-ship missile range for them to even launch a strike on a land based position. If we are hitting Iran or some 3rd world country this would not be a huge concern, but going up against the Dragon in the South China Sea it would most certainly be a huge risk. Is there no strategic thought afoot anywhere in the USN?
The USS Missouri was moored in nearby Bremerton for decades until they moved her to Hawaii in the late 90’s. We toured it more than once, there is a bronze plaque in the exact spot on deck where the Japanese surrendered.
You have no idea how I hope my analysis is totally wrong.
Following our tour of the Missouri, we boarded a Navy open boat to visit the Arizona Memorial. The “tears of the Arizona” Number 6 oil was still oozing from the wreck. I recognized this in a whiff as it reminded me of the fuel used on Great Lakes steamers.
Among the tour seekers were some college-age Japanese girls, one of whom spoke English. I asked what brought them to Pearl Harbor and she said, “We wanted to see what our fathers and grandfathers had done. The Pacific War is not taught in Japanese schools.”
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