Replies

Have studied the main gun turret manual. Very old fashioned system, DC motors with series resistors in the armature circuit for speed control, all right out of the 1920's, but of fine materials and workmanship. Still practical. Useful.

The United States Marine Corps wants them. Good enough for me.

The United States Marine Corps wants them. Good enough for me.

The Marines don't have to pay for them.

The main cost is the obscenely large crews needed for these ships, especially compared to the tiny crews of the next generation of highly automated Navy vessels.

And really the effectiveness comparison should be to GPS bombs, not the DD(X).

While we ran air cover and pickett for her, we watched the Jersey tear Tiger Island, (Hainan Is.), in the very north of the Tonkin Gulf, a new one, with her main guns, I remember one of the gunners mates saying the projectile weight was about 1650 pounds of HE.

We could see the streaks of the projectiles as they slammed into the caves that hid NVA MIGs n such, that because of the thickness of the overburden, and their fierce SAM net defenses at the entrances, Naval Air had been unable to neutralize those MIGs, at least for good.

It was an awesome sight, from the side, I wouldn't have wanted that X on me.

We laughed because at the time a Volkswagen Beetle car weighed just about the same as those projectiles. Didn't need to be HE bro, imagine catching Volkswagens! We were jealous since we had a 5"/54 as MBG.

The fleet used to be run like a fight between the Naval Air "ring knockers", (Naval Academy Grads, the highest echelon of the Naval, and Marine, officer corps.), and Surface Line officer "ring knockers", for money and power.

Naval Air was winning thirty years ago. Brown shoes have always mistrusted the Black shoes, and vice-versa. Look how Dolittle made his point about Air power, and the experiences of the Fleets in the Pacific during WW2. You have to REALLY want Battlewagons, they are VERY expensive, but I'd rather spend money than Marine's lives. The Battlewagon ought to live, even if it's just till the DDX gets up and operating. Operational requirements will not wait until DDX is up and running.

Hello.
I'm out of my element here, since I was not in the Navy.
The Battleships are very old, but so is the B52, and we are still using it.
The manpower and cost would be a problem, but if the Navy is counting on the DDX ship, they may be in for a surprise.
New weapons systems have a habit of taking longer to develope, and costing a lot more than projected.
THe Iowa class ships could be an interim solution, until the DDX comes online.

Everyone on this thread seems to forget or is ignoring two things: (1) the last time they were in operation, the Navy was hard pressed to fund their operating costs (high fuel and manpower costs, even back in the low-cost '80s), and (2) they were taken out of operation because they are too dangerous to their crews