[Godzilla]

The big guns - yes. But they were also retofitted as cruise missile launch platforms - their new big guns and lots of them IIRC.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"But they were also retofitted as cruise missile launch platforms - their new big guns and lots of them IIRC."

And those same cruise missiles are carried on cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The only difference is those ships don't have 16 inch guns. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they were there for us in Beirut and in the first Gulf War, but overall the jobs they did in the 80's were able to be done by other ships. They were brought out of Mothballs as a sort of message to the world, the age of Jimmy Carter's inept Navy are over. The bad assed American Navy is back. What better way to announce that than to have 16 inch gun bohemoths cruising around the world to dock in foreign ports. Where people could look on those guns and crap their pants thinking I don't want to piss Reagan off...