Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
It would be interesting to speculate on a modern battleship: Modern propulsion system (nuke? gas turbine?) Lots of missiles. Big guns still? (A shell costs a lot less than a missile.) Heavy armor still? The cost would be astronomical, of course. A modern version might not be as attractive as an Iowa, though.
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I don't think there will ever be another true BB built. It would just be too much cost for too little return. The defining armament for a BB is very large caliber rifles (guns) and there is no place for weapons like these in todays Naval environment.
Ship v ship gunfighting requires getting too close to the target and putting your own ship and crew at great risk. Missiles can perform more accurately from stand off distances.
Shore bombardment also requires putting the ship at great risk. The max range of the 16'' 50 Caliber Mk-7 guns is approx. 23 miles. Actually the max effective range is somewhat less as accuracy decreases with an increase in target range. So, even if you drive the ship up on the beach, which isn't going to happen, the effective range of your target is limited to only a relative few miles.
No one is going to advocate putting a crew into an almost certain retaliatory environment. All potential enemies possess very effective ship killing missiles, and a "new' BB would be a sitting duck. Everything that guns can do can be done better, and at less risk by missiles which can be carried and deployed by lots of different Naval vessels.
Sigh. The BB's of the Twentieth century have been consigned to museums and memory like the magnificent Naval sailing ships that preceded them. We remember them, marvel at them, and honor them and their crews.