[Larry Lucido]

What is the closest thing the Navy has to a battleship now? A destroyer?

[COEXERJ145]

Not counting the carriers or marine assault ships, the largest would be the Ticonderoga class of guided missile cruisers (CG).

Of course in terms of fire power, nothing surpasses the Ohio class SSBN's.

[GAB-1955]

"What is the closest thing the Navy has to a battleship now? A destroyer?"

An Ohio-class SSBN.

I used to annoy my good friend, a battleship buff, during the Gulf War when I called the 16-inch guns on the Wisconsin "its secondary armament." (The first armament would be the Tomahawks.)

[El Gato]

What is the closest thing the Navy has to a battleship now? A destroyer?

We really have nothing comparable. Big naval guns have gone the way of the Dodo bird. Wrongly I think, but gone they are, except the mothballed Iowa class ships (some of which are also museums) and a few other floating museums of WW-II or earlier vintage.

The big capital ships are the carriers. However the conversion of some of the Ohio class SSBNs to SSGNs (cruise missile carriers) creates a different sort of capitial ship, good for shore bombardment or anti=ship strikes.