[lentulusgracchus]

Where are you going to use them.

Wherever sea lanes are constricted, making attacks on the international energy-transport grid attractive to terrorists and terrorist-minded states. Places like the Malacca Straits, the Florida Straits, the Straits of Gibraltar, Suez, Panama, the North Sea and English Channel, the Med , the Red Sea, the Formosa Straits, the Tsushima Straits between Korea and Japan.

And anywhere U.S. Marines might be called to serve ashore, adjacent to a beach. Because their real base is always the Navy, look for them on a beach, and only then inland.

[MNJohnnie]

And anywhere U.S. Marines might be called to serve ashore, adjacent to a beach. Because their real base is always the Navy, look for them on a beach, and only then inland.

And I would like to have a 2nd summer home, a Lambroginini and vacation villa in the Crimea. However, since I cannot afford such LUXURIES, I will have to do with out. The battleships are nice to have, they are not vital to the current or short term missions the Marines are likely to face.

[brothers4thID]

Your listing of strategic choke points brings up another flaw in the argument for the BB's. BB's are heavily armored heavy hitters, but those babies don't turn on a dime. Read about the Battle of Samar and the other naval battles surrounding the Leyte Gulf landings in 1944. Destroyers and destroyer escorts took and on beat back the largest battleship ever afloat, in part due to their faster firing ability and their great maneuverability and speed.

To use BB's for sea lane control you have to have a flotilla of smaller craft supporting them. 16inch guns can't crank down far enough to defeat an inflatable loaded with explosives.