Subject: Re: Those Trump Class "Battleships"
Wisconsin was commissioned in April of 1944. Missouri was commissioned in June of 1944. Looked it up because I wasn't sure of the exact dates.

Fair enough. I was going by whose keel was laid down last, and that was the Wisconsin (hence the larger hull number).

This isn't a DDG(x), it is a BBG. Significantly larger than a DDG. Power plant likely won't be an issue on a new design (if it is, someone screwed up). That, however, does not make me incorrect about the Navy not wanting this. This isn't a replacement for the Ticos. They were only about the size of the Arleigh-Burkes (~9K tons). This is a completely different class of ship that arguably won't fill the gap in capabilities. With only a few more VLS cells than the much smaller Ticos. They need fires, and a lot of them. You could build 4 DDGs for one of these things, giving you a lot more "bang for your buck", and filling the gap left by the Ticos very nicely.

The Burkes don’t haul enough stuff to sea. They’re not big enough. For in-shore bombardment you need something with over the horizon capability to make the aerial drone problem harder. That normally means missiles, but they’re bigger and heavier and you can only carry so many. That’s why the rail gun concept keeps coming back, because it’s needed.

Blue water operations call for ships that can stay on station for weeks or months on end. The Burkes are fantastic ships but we’re never designed for some of the jobs they’re being asked to do.

I don’t particularly care what Trump calls them: they’re not battleships. Battle cruiser is more apt, but whatever. They’ll carry an Osprey or two which means they have some airlift capability along with the enhanced firepower. They’ll also carry multistage hypersonics in addition to the larger number of vertical cells.

The rail gun + laser + bigger radar combo == much bigger power plant than the Burkes have. They’ll probably repurpose/modify the one in the America-class LHD designs.

For the frigate they’re just going to use the Legend class design (large Coast Guard cutter) as the base. We already make those.