It just so happens that the Iowa is at sea as we type. It's due into San Francisco the middle of this month. Alas, I belive she's under tow, not under her own power. Those boilers, now nearly 60 years old, have got to be getting pretty tired. Still there is much to be said for a mobile big gun platform. I remember when the call went out for Battleship sailors that last time the Iowas were brought out of mothballs. Guy at work was a Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr., and he had some of the paperwork done by one of our secretaries during her free moments. About that same time I put in paperwork to rejoin the active Air Force reserve, which she also knew about. Scared her half to death, she was sure there was a war coming, soon, :) And there was, but not for several years, and not against any enemy then anticipated at that time. The Reagan buildup that all that was a part of helped bring down the Soviet Union.
Until the Iowas are once more resurrected, if they ever are, we'll just have to make do with "flying artillery" using precison guided weapons, which do alot more good than theire mere tonage would indicate, should we have to push Marines ashore on some hostile beach.
Iowa is currently deactivated. She has been deactivated since 1990, but her sisteships Missouri, which is a museum in Pearl Harbor but can be called back, and Wisconsin, which is berthed at Nauticus in Norfolk, Va, served in the Gulf War.
Those boilers, now nearly 60 years old, have got to be getting pretty tired. Considering that 40 to 45 of those years, these ships were mothballed, the actual wear is far less than implied here. These ships, built to last about 40 years, have about 15 years of their life used up. There's lots of fight left in both of them and those big guns are far more cost effective than hi-tech missles will ever be.