The Case for a 21st-Century Battleship

The National Interest ^ | 03/08/18 | Salvatore Babones

[Professional]

Hey, an American Vasa ship!

[WayneS]

...and people say a 70 year old ship is impractical to keep in the Navy.

[Snickering Hound]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_cruiser

Yeah, but they got the CGN right with the Virginia’s.

[CodeToad]

What do you mean no armor piercing bombs??

[Phlyer]

What do you mean no armor piercing bombs??

Basically, no one has armor-piercing bombs in inventory any more. We (US) have a few hard-case bombs for penetrating bunkers, but there aren't a lot of those. Since no one has been putting armor on ships, no one's Navy has much armor-piercing capability. If you look at Harpoon, Tomahawk, Exocet, etc. none of them have any real armor-penetrating capability.

Similarly, except for submarine torpedoes (admittedly a real threat), no one has heavy torpedoes that could sink a truly armored ship, even with 17 hits (as in Musashi). The air-launched and surface-ship launched torpedoes are all light anti-submarine weapons.

That doesn't mean any ship is unsinkable, but it means that a truly armored ship would not be at much risk of sinking from the weapons in current world inventory (again, aside from subnmarine torpedoes, but it would take several of those).

Obviously, armor-penetrating weapons could be re-introduced, but not on current anti-shipping missiles (e.g. Harpoon) because there is no room for the hard case with any meaningful bursting charge. Nor are current Naval and/or shore guns heavy enough to deliver the sort of warhead it would take. The quickest way to re-equip to attack armored ships effectively would be conventional aircraft bombs - the armor-piercing versions of which were originally derived from battleship shells (a demonstration that they are too large for current artillery). The US is the only nation with an effective carrier force so that means shore-based aircraft. Launching a major strike would be a clear act of war, so once again it seems like an armored ship might work for freedom of the seas demonstrations.

[bravo whiskey]

A heavy cruiser with two triple 8 or 10 inch forward gun turrets and the mid and stern areas packed with various missiles would do the trick rather than go full battleship. You get armor, you get speed, you get long distance hitting power, AA capabilities and you can stand off shore and pound your enemy with shell fire as well. got to Singapore. buy a dozen 300,000T VLCCs that are just sitting there. Battleship armor the entire stern. fill the outer tanks with fuel or water. plenty of room for a couple of big guns and lots of VLS with AAW, Anti-ship, Land attack, and ASW weapons. won't look like warship but will act like one. don't need to sink the bad guy. an FAE (fuel air bomb) will strip every electronic array from a cruiser. turns a KARA class (dating myself) into an 8000T target.

[slowhandluke]

They did. Special Forces in Afghanistan. Movie 12 Strong. But you knew that.

[scrabblehack]

I thought the movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440129/?ref_=nv_sr_1
should have been more of a comedy.

The opening scenes should have been two students at college who became rivals, and eventually opposing admirals. Upon graduation, the students go back to their home countries. Eventually war breaks out between the two countries.

At some point, one admiral calls the other and says, “You sunk my battleship!”

[Pontiac]

It would likely be smaller, have plenty of missile systems, with the main armament a battery of rail guns.

I would agree. The future of artillery is the rail gun.

When the technology is mature it may make reactive armor obsolete.

[Pontiac]

How about a 3 kilometer long Pycrete ship? Just keep it in colder waters

Why not concrete. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the water temperature.

A battle ship isn’t terribly useful if it can’t go where the battle is.

[sarge83]

I always wondered if the Long Beach was as unstable as it looked. Wonder about the Chicago/Albany CLG’s as well.

[sarge83]

Cheaper to build a new class of CA’s than BB’s.

[sparklite2]

The design was so unique, I had a crush on the ship for years. A friend from radio school was stationed on the Long Beach and I got to go aboard for a visit. Didn’t find out about her maladies until just a couple of weeks ago. Bummer.