No. of Recommendations: 17
"We haven't built a battleship since 1994. These cutting-edge vessels will be some of the most lethal surface warfare ships... other than our submarines."No, they won't be cutting-edge or the most lethal surface warfare ships. Because they're
battleships, and battleships are obsolete technology. Which is why we haven't built any in decades. Which is why
no one is building any. Which is why no navy on earth have any battleships in service, or even in reserve. They've all been scrapped, used as target ships, or used as museum ships.
Besides the rise of aircraft carriers as the preeminent naval striking force, the advent of nuclear weapons influenced the decision to abandon large battleship fleets. In 1946, Nagato, which was seized by the US, and four American battleships were used during the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests, though three of the American ships survived the two blasts and were later sunk with conventional weapons.
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When the last Iowa-class ship was finally stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry, no battleships remained in service or in reserve with any navy worldwide. A number are preserved as museum ships, either afloat or in drydock. The U.S. has eight battleships on display: Massachusetts, North Carolina, Alabama, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Texas.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship#Cold_War:...I cannot imagine how this ever happens. Trump is trying to set naval strategy based on nostalgia, rather than what modern naval combat actually involves. Hopefully someone in the Navy (not Hegseth, obviously, but someone lower down who knows something about something) can put enough sand in the gears of this so that too much money isn't wasted before we have a new President that might actually learn something about what the Navy needs....