Yep. The heavy cruiser I served aboard had a crew of about 1200. You just couldn't do that these days.
Sure, you could automate the heck out of the thing, but that would constitute a whole new ship design. 16-inch guns and the 600-lb steam propulsion plant were designed to be crewed by people. They'd have to be redesigned. By then you have a whole new ship anyway.
It's all about the mission. Ship-to-ship, it's too big and slow a target and payloads these days are better than any armor. Ship-to-shore, i.e. fire support, you can get better range and accuracy nowadays without the bulk.
But they were good. My late Dad told a story about calling in fire support on a hill in Korea. He was expecting 155's but got the 16-inchers instead. He said it was a little startling when the top of the hill just went away. There's something to be said for that.
Yep, Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Yep.
Kinduh like castles.
Way kewel but, modernity has made them obsolete
Build the Montana (oh, right, we’re out of money...) but replace 2-3 of the gun mounts with rail guns and their generating units in a similar turret system.. Leave one powder burner mounts. Lay out the secondary systems with laser and gatling AA/Anti missile units. Maybe work in STOL aircraft on it. Trade weight with interior composites and utilize the savings to slather the exterior in Chobham and reactive armors, make it so it can survive being pounded on by whatever can get past it’s 200 mile wall of death...
If it was the Iowa then my dad may have been on it at the time. he was a gunners mate on the little ones only 5 inches.