[Zero Sum]

Oliver North doing what he does best: making good, hard sense.

[Route101]

Battleships and the silent service...we need them both!

[carumba]

The Bismark was the beginning of the end for the battle ship. Argentina's General Belgarno was an example of large surface ships being large targets.

[FreedomPoster]

Precision guided munitions make BBs completely obsolete.

[Strategerist]

Actually he's unfortunately full of crap on this one.

The BBs will never be back in service. They require simply enormous crews; over time that quickly costs a lot more money; you can't simply compare the cost of putting them back in service with the cost of a new DD(X). A lot of people are infatuated with the BBs on an emotional level. Put them back in service and you're going to really have to cut Carriers, subs, the F-35,or any new surface ships at all a LOT more than they've been cut already

[Hardastarboard]

Oh, hell! I thought this was a thread about keeping our mother-in-laws safe from harm!

[Junior]

The two surviving battleships are 60+ year-old platforms for which the support infrastructure no longer exists (that's why the Iowa was using old powder at the time of her turret explosion). They are manpower and maintenance-intensive, which means they'll soak up personnel and money the Navy does not have.

I understand the romanticism of big-gun battlewagons; however, even in their hay day they were vulnerable to enemy action (c.f. Yamato and Bismark). Technology has advanced 60 years since then.

[clee1]

Battleships are relics of a bygone era.

Too expensive, too vulnerable.

RIP, BB.

[Doohickey]

Isn't Iowa the ship that has one turret inoperative?

[Non-Sequitur]

Oliver North doing what he does best: making good, hard sense.

Ollie is living in the past. A portion of a carrier air wing can put more tonnage on target with more accuracy than both battleships can.

[Vaquero]

one word.....CARRIERS that is all.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Except for the nuclear submarine fleet, Naval warfare is obsolete. Even the carriers. Even the manned aircraft.

Rumsfeld knows it and is trying to take us in the right direction. The traditionalists are fighting him every step of the way.

This century's major wars will be won or lost from hardened underground control centers in the heart of America, using unmanned aircraft and space-based technologies.

[HamiltonJay]

The Iowa Class Battleship is the ultimat projection of power.. yes, the Air Craft Carrier has replaced it as the pre-eminant ship.. but nothing puts the fear of God into anyone like a full broadside from the 16"ers.

And nothing turns pitch black night into brightest day than the same thing.

Yes, the days of battleships dogging it out against each other on the open ocean died during WWII, but there is a reason every time we go to war, the Iowa classes keep getting called back out.

[68 grunt]

Sure agree with Ollie. I've also had their support. Awesome. Some contend that their era is over but I say they are a superb traveling embassy.

[Lazamataz]

Miniature, autononmous robots are the future of warfare.

[kabar]

Ollie begs the question. When do we eliminate these ships from our inventory? The New Jersey was commissioned in 1943 and the Wisconsin in 1944. Unless we want to build new ones, there comes a point when it is no longer economically feasible to keep them in service, albeit mothballs. I agree with the CNO, it is time to put these ships out to pasture.

[hgro]

As a crew member of the "Jersey" in WW2 I know the Japanese gave a wide berth to this great ship. It could put up a curtain of flak that was impossible to fly thru. As a 17 year old kid, it has been the greatest adventure of my life.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"There is no weapon system in the world that comes even close to the visible symbol of enormous power represented by the battleship." -- Retired Gen. P.X. Kelly, USMC

I nominate the aircraft carrier. (How old is this quote?)

[SaltyJoe]

If I had the money, I'd by a battleship and a carrier and convert them (modernized upgrades) to keep the shipyards in tune with new technology, to give the US Navy some advanced ideas, and just to have some fun gosh darn it.

[jpsb]

Our current SoD reminds me of another whiz kid of years ago. As an long inactive Marine trained in Naval Gun Fire, I can tell you that nothing, gets the job done like a Iowa class battleship, nothing. Nothing projects power like an Iowa class battleship. Why our leaders want to retire the best firepower platform the world has ever seen is a complete mystery. I think they a flat out crazy or worse, treasonous.

An armed forces lead by Rumfield is just like the smaller, faster, cheaper NASA that can't do big missions any longer. Is that what we want? A military that can hide real good, but can't fight? Is that what Rummy is trying to build? Sure looks like it.

[Godzilla]

They've created gps guided artillery shells for 155mm howitzers, they sure can develop the same for rounds coming out of the 16-inchers. Bringing the battleships back was one of Regans better ideas, standing them down was one of the worst post-Regan actions.