[GonzoGOP]

Last week Tehran threatened to torpedo any U.S. carriers in the Persian Gulf by setting its diesel-electric subs on the sea floor and torpedoing the carriers as they pass.

Which is of course why you don't send CV battle groups into the shallow, confined waters of the gulf. The carriers stay outside and send in waves of aircraft to blast your defenses to heck while the frigates and DDGs run into the gulf.

Too bad we don't have any of the BBs on the roster any more. I've seen the dent where a kamikaze with a 500 pound bomb hit the Missouri. And that is about the same impact as an Exocet or a C-802 missile. The BBs could soak up hits the way that the think skinned DDGs and FFGs can't. For example the Yamato was hit by at least eleven torpedoes and six bombs. Two more torpedo and bomb hits are possible, but unconfirmed. And the Iowa class had better armor and watertight subdivision than Yamato. So while you can sink a BB, it took a lot of effort.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have stood on the deck of the Missouri where that kamikaze “dent” you mentioned is located.

We visited Pearl Harbor a couple years ago and the big BB had just come out of a dry docking and looked great.

[bert]

The Yamato was ineffective at doing anything but taking hits. As I recall it was engaged in battle only once and that was against a pitifully small force of escort carriers and destroyers that actually prevailed.

the Yamato was obsolete the day it slid off the ways.

[Tallguy]

For example the Yamato was hit by at least eleven torpedoes and six bombs.

The USS Pennsylvania suffered a bent propeller shaft late in WW2 due to a single torpedo hit. It effectively ended her career. The Bismark was famously brought to fatal combat by a single lightweight aerial torpedo that jammed its rudder.

I'm not sure that sending an Iowa-class BB would do anything more that re-create the Yamato-experience.

[reed13k]

Big difference between the 500lbrs of WWII and the shaped war-heads of today that generate a plasma torch that will melt through inches of steel like paper on impact.

As to the carriers in the Gulf - within 48 hours the sea lanes would be reopened as the P-3, S-3, and helos drop active ping sonobouys followed by torps on the subs and the fighter/attack planes, DDGs, and Cruisers set a missle into whatever decides to get underway out of Iran. The air battle may last a little longer, I’m not as familiar with iran’s repertoire there. Then we would have one carrier just outside the mouth and one on the North end of the Gulf just like in the first gulf war; and pick and chose our targets.

[RitchieAprile]

Modern warheads with shaped shage configuration on an attack missile would trash a BB and sent it to the bottom
without much trouble.

Even one hit could remove its ability to manuever and render it helpless (rudder hit). I hope our Navy doesn’t put our kids in harms way on these museum barges.