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In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration was looking to fund high visibility defense programs. Reagan had been elected on a platform of rebuilding the armed services after the “hollowing out” of the early 1970s. One example was the reactivation of four World War II-era Iowa-class battleships, which started in 1982. Each of the four ships, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey and Wisconsin was refurbished, their sixteen and five-inch guns brought back online. Each battleship was also equipped with sixteen Harpoon anti-ship missiles, thirtytwo Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and four Phalanx close-in weapon systems (CIWS) for defense. The four battlewagons...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump will deliver an address on national security and veterans' issues from the USS Iowa, a retired battleship, on Sept. 15. "Donald Trump is a long-standing supporter of veterans and the military and we are honored that he has chosen our organization and event for his major national security address,” said Joel Arends, chairman of the Veterans for a Strong America (VSA), in a statement on Thursday announcing the event.

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LOS ANGELES – Inspired by the naval war-based board game of the same name, “Battleship” the movie is coming to a theater near you this week, and leading lady Brooklyn Decker hopes it does more than just entertain. “We actually used lots of real military service men and women in the film,” she told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “We used active and wounded military as well as veterans that have fought over the years, so there is a lot of history to it and this adds a lot of value to the movie. I think you feel some patriotism when...

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The Defense Department announced in April that the remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed. That process began on Monday. “This was the first set of remains from the USS Oklahoma to be disinterred,” said Jim Horton, the director of the Punchbowl cemetery. Disinterment ceremonies were held when the bones of Korean War veterans were exhumed for identification. Now, hundreds who served on USS Oklahoma during World War II may also be identified. The attacked happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. But many bodies...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany plans to acquire a new air defense system and four new battleships over the coming years for a total of nearly 8 billion euros ($8.9 billion).

<p>"History," it has been written, "does not repeat itself, but it rhymes." Today it's rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents.</p>

Governor Palin attended last nights fundraiser for the SEAL – Naval Special Warfare Family Foundation aboard the USS Iowa in San Pedro, California.

Sarah Palin Honors SEALs Aboard USS Iowa Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin honors SEALs aboard the USS Iowa last night at a dinner gala and auction held by the SEAL-NSW Family Foundation. In a brief interview with Ruben Jay, she said, “what an honor for Todd and I to be here. This is iconic of course – the history of this chunk of metal and what it represents; the history and the representative that it is of the virtues and characteristics of our military. It’s an honor to be here to help raise money for families of Navy SEALs and...

I used to be a tin can sailor. Great book. Like most books, it reinforces how the admirals were wrong. But that's easy to say 60 years after the fact. As Nelson DeMille said, anyone can be a military genius with the benefit of hindsight. I continue to be amazed that the Yamato and Musashi were able to shoot 3,200 lb. shells a distance of 26 miles. In my day, we did that with missiles.

. The Musashi was one of a trio of vessels built by Japan during the war that, at 263 metres (863 feet) each, were its biggest battleships ever. American warplanes sank the Musashi on October 24, 1944, at the height of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, regarded as the largest naval encounter of the war in which US and Australian forces defeated the Japanese. Dozens of Japanese warships that were sunk during World War II have since been found in the Philippines, with some of them now popular dive locations. The Sibuyan Sea where the Musashi was reportedly found is...

The repetition of the myth of the fragile battlecruiser continues even as the greatest victory of the class is now just over 100 years in the past. This particular capital ship has been on the receiving end of the naval world’s harshest criticism since three of their British number met untimely ends at the May 31-June 1, 1916 Battle of Jutland. In fact, the battlecruiser was a hybrid, cost saving platform designed specifically to support a mature British strategic concept of seapower. Its heavy losses at Jutland were more to do with early 20th century capital ship design and poor...

USS Iowa firing all of its 16-inchers. A fantastic spectacle but anachronistic in 21st century warfare. (US Navy Photo) Those who cover the militarized aspects of the ocean eventually will encounter a group of people who want the U.S. Navy to get back into the battleship business. The argument goes like this: The four remaining World War II Iowa-class battleships are cheaper to operate, cheaper than building new ships, and provide powerful and much-needed weapons (giant 16-inch guns—that’s the diameter of the shell, not the length of the barrel) to the U.S. arsenal. (The 2012 summer movie spectacular Battleship...

BATH, ME -- After embarrassing troubles with its latest class of surface warships, the Navy is hoping for a winner from a new destroyer that's ready to go into the water. So far, construction of the first-in-class Zumwalt, the largest U.S. Navy destroyer ever built, is on time and on budget, something that's a rarity in new defense programs, officials said. And the Navy believes the ship's big gun, stealthy silhouette and advance features will make it a formidable package.

Parade Magazine is apologizing for a design flub that paired a Nazi battleship with an award winning U.S. Navy chef, the magazine’s top editor told USNI News on Monday. The story featured Senior Chief Culinary Specialist Derrick Davenport, a chef for the Joint Chiefs Chairman, who won the gold medal in the March 38th Annual Military Culinary Arts Competition at Fort Lee, Va. But topping the heart warming tale of Davenport’s rise to the gold from the broom closet sized kitchen of the attack sub USS Annapolis (SSN-760) was a collection of ship silhouettes that included the most notorious Nazi...

In the third and final debate, Barack Obama scored huge points with the media, college kids, and die-hard liberals — in other words, his base — when he mocked Mitt Romney’s concern about our historically small Navy. “But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works,” the president said. “You — you mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes...

The USS Iowa, one of the last battleships ever built, will open July 7 as a museum in Los Angeles Harbor. Advance tickets are on sale for tours of the ship, which served on and off from World War II to 1990. The 900-foot battleship with 16-inch guns was towed recently from Vallejo, on San Francisco Bay, to Los Angeles. It is the last of the four Iowa-class battleships to find a permanent home after years as part of "the mothball fleet." he Iowa will be operated by the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center, which will begin offering tours July 7...

SAN PEDRO, Calif. (KABC) -- The historic USS Iowa battleship arrived off the coast of San Pedro Wednesday morning, marking an exciting event. Crews were cleaning the vessel as it pulled into San Pedro. The ship will stay on the coast for a few days before docking at its permanent home. The ship is expected to open to the public July 7.