[Ramius]

Schweet.

[sigh] Ahhh... the Iowa class. I’ve opined at length already on them. I feel so lucky to have been able to see one fire shots onshore. Close. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

I know they’re inefficient. I know they’re expensive. I know there’s better ways to spend money in the DOD. I don’t care. We should have something like New Jersey left in the inventory. Maybe a couple of them.

Just think what we could build now. Nuclear powered. Three or four feet thick of Chobham Armor at the waterline. Twelve inches of Chobham around the superstructure. Computer-controlled laser-and-satellite guided munitions from sixteen -no- eighteen inch tubes with fifty mile range. Heck... gimme a freakin’ railgun on the thing. Three hundred mile range. Throw in some lasers and missiles and whatever else we can.

It could be a heck of a ship. Even the old Iowa class were the only ships in the inventory that could actually withstand a modern (silkworm, exocet...) missile strike and probably survive and keep fighting. Anything else we have today pretty much becomes a mere hole in the water.

Just make it look like the Iowa class. The single best lines ever drawn by a marine architect. Bar none.

IMHO. :-)

[Ramius]

Pretty. Dont'cha think?

[300winmag]

Even the old Iowa class were the only ships in the inventory that could actually withstand a modern (silkworm, exocet...) missile strike and probably survive and keep fighting.

I read somewhere where the kamikazes avoided Iowa-class battleships. If they managed to get through the horrendous number of AA guns, they just made a smudge on the paint.