Don't think any other nation is thinking of reviving Battleships either.
They require far too many crewmen for a modern warship, which is why they were retired again after the Bush I administration. It has nothing to do with their armament, which can reach many of the targets we want to hit. We’re not paying sailors $25 a month any more.
Great for a gun platform for fire support. And for launching cruise missiles. I would got out on a limb and say there will never be another naval battle like Leyte Gulf, but who knows? The Chinese are hell bent on a blue water navy...
I wonder how a battleship’s armor would handle a modern ship killer missile. The destroyers back in the 70’s through the 90’s were aluminum from the main deck up. Not too good for stopping anything.
Yeah....I know all that.
But they are so cool. Can’t we have just a couple?
There were both rocket boosted and terminal guided shells.
I’d keep one running. Sabot rounds, smart projectiles, accepting surrenders...
I’ll always love them Iowa class battleships. Such a beautiful and awesome boat that oozed strength and power. I’ll never forget being on the receiving end of the Iowa as she practiced with her 16”ers and we towed the targets.
The big battleship existed to deliver massive ordnance over long distances. The end began in WWII, and now are so many other ways to deliver massive ordnance now, that role of the battleship is finished. Plus - it is a huge, expensive target for supersonic anti-ship missiles that nearly every tinpot dictator possesses now.
Those wooden decks are so 19th century.
What impressed me is the care the Navy took in mothballing the ship. If for instance a boiler has been drained, the drain plug is left wired to the boiler and written instructions for replacing it are attached.
Here is an Electrician's Mate explaining to his sons how to put a turbo-generator on line in correct phase.
Note the tags.
Too much deck area to swab?
I think a naval engagement of the future will be at close ranges. Why? Radar counter detection invariable leads to EMCOM - emissions control being enforced. Targeting will be via satellite and final targeting visual, that’s right visual. The old saying is radiate and die. Radar is suicide, same with active sonar.
Battleships are wonderful in asymmetrical warfare. Wonderful.
Every argument that can be applied to battleships can be applied to aircraft carriers. They too, are wonderful in asymmetrical warfare. And are vulnerable in symmetrical warfare.
Bring back the battleships, I want to watch third world missiles bouncing off them.
Awesome part of the movie.
Well, with GPS guided shells the artilery is making a come back. Of course ships can easily be killed and subs make more sense. But if we have ships, makes sense to me to have regular guns on them.
It is a passage of time, as the time for the Battleship had come and gone.
But it won’t stop us from admiring them, or have cherished memories, tales from the elders, etc. Like a great dame, proper tributes need to be paid.
The argument for battleships is to bombard enemy beaches prior to landing. The possibility of landing troops on an opposed beach like they did at Tarawa or Iwo Jima is virtually zero, so the usefulness of the battleship is virtually zero as well.