Look! It put a dent in the ocean!
That's a FANTASTIC picture. It really shows the changes that were made to modernize the ship...looks like they added lots of missile launchers, removed the old 5" turrets along the sides amidships, added the helipad on the stern, and generally cleaned things up.
Sadly, the old battlewagons probably are impractical to modernize and redeploy, but I'd sure love to be proven wrong. They'd be somewhat vulnerable to modern anti-ship missiles, but probably no more vulnerable than any other ship, and maybe less than most since they're built so strongly. Then combine the sheer power of those 16-inch guns with modern artillery technology, and the mind boggles to think of the hell one of those ships could rain down within thirty miles of a coast.
}:-)4
awesome pic