Statements like that remind me of the Czarist navy circa 1903. Everyone knew that they could beat the Japanese.
Of course, you are right. 10 carriers can be as many places as 13, 54 submarines can do as much as 100, and the current cruisers can stay in action without refueling as long as the nuclear powered ones could. And let's not forget that the top gun in the navy has grown from those puny 16 inchers to the powerful 5 inch guns.
It's the age of the Carrier now. Battleships with 16 inch guns are obsolete. Equip them with cruise missiles and you have a different story, but ship-to-ship artillery showed itself to be a failure in WW II sixty-odd years ago. The Japanese battlewagons with 18 inch guns were sunk by submarines and aircraft without ever bringing their massive arms to bear.