Not badly enough to (a) risk blowing up the ship (which damn near happened on the Iowa), and (b) risk getting their own troops whacked by a stray 16-inch round (which, given how poor the accuracy is--the definition of "danger close" with 16-inch fire is any fire delivered within two nautical miles of the observer--will certainly happen with enough salvos fired).
And the USNFSA thinks they can be refurbished.
Yup, it's easy, from their point of view. Of course, they won't be the ones doing the actual work, so I tend to take their claims with a grain of salt.
I'm tired of people shorting what I work on (C4ISR) to fund some mostly symbolic project like the battleships. If we need that kind of fire support, we need to build new ships with new technology.
You should have seen the vessel I saw about a month ago leaving San Diego harbor. I guessed it at 400-450' long flush flat deck with a very small house midships, no weapons showing - in fact no protrusions at all - tall freeboard and a radical prow that can only be described ad radical fast looking - large long bulb breaking the water and severely flaired topsides at the bow. It looked like the transom was fold down to let amphib or aircushon vehicles out. It was as Buck Roger-ish a boat as I have ever seen.
Its markings were something like HSTV.....High Speed Test Vessel?? Travis - do you know what she was??